Affiliate Links for "arcadata"- August 2013

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Crocodile on the Sandbank (Amelia Peabody) by Barbara Mertz (writing as Elizabeth Peters) (Mysterious Press) is $2.99

Book Description:

Thirty-one-year-old Victorian gentlewoman Amelia Peabody has not only inherited her father’s fortune, but she is also blessed with his strong will as well.

Now she’s headed for Cairo, accompanied by a girl with a tarnished past, to indulge her passion for Egyptology.

Little did she know that murder and a homicidal mummy lay in wait for her.

More Than You Know by Nan Rossiter (Kensington Books) is $2.99

Book Description:

New York Times bestselling author Nan Rossiter weaves a poignant, empowering novel in which three sisters gather to celebrate their mother’s life–and find new inspiration for living their own. . .

Losing her father on the night she was born could have torn Beryl Graham’s family apart. Instead, it knitted them together. Under their mother’s steady guidance, Beryl and her older sisters, Isak and Rumer, shared a childhood filled with happiness. But now Mia Graham has passed away after battling Alzheimer’s, and her three daughters return to their New Hampshire home to say goodbye.

Swept up in memories and funeral preparations, the sisters catch up on each other’s lives. Rumer and Isak have both known recent heartache, while Beryl has given up hope of marriage. But surprising revelations abound, especially when they uncover Mia’s handwritten memoir. In it are secrets they never guessed at–clandestine romance, passionate dreams, joy and guilt. And as Beryl, Rumer, and Isak face a future without her, they realize it’s never too late to heed a mother’s lessons–about taking chances, keeping faith, and loving in spite of the risks. . .

The Dangerous Days of Daniel X: 1 by James Patterson (Little, Brown and Company) is $3.79

Book Description:

The greatest superpower of all isn’t to be part spider, part man, or to cast magic spells–the greatest power is the power to create.

Daniel X has that power.

Daniel’s secret abilities — like being able to manipulate objects and animals with his mind or to recreate himself in any shape he chooses — have helped him survive. But Daniel doesn’t have a normal life. He is the protector of the earth, the Alien Hunter, with a mission beyond what anyone’s imagining.

From the day that his parents were brutally murdered before of his very eyes, Daniel has used his unique gifts to hunt down their assassin. Finally, with the help of The List, bequeathed to him in his parents’ dying breath, he is closing in on the killer.

Now, on his own, he vows to take on his father’s mission–and to take vengeance in the process.

The Blessing Way (Joe Leaphorn) by Tony Hillerman (HarperCollins) is $1.99

Book Description:

Homicide is always an abomination, but there is something exceptionally disturbing about the victim discovered in a high lonely place, a corpse with a mouth full of sand, abandoned at a crime scene seemingly devoid of tracks or useful clues.

Though it goes against his better judgment, Navajo Tribal Police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn cannot help but suspect the hand of a supernatural killer. There is palpable evil in the air, and Leaphorn’s pursuit of a Wolf-Witch is leading him where even the bravest men fear, on a chilling trail that winds perilously between mysticism and murder.

Chow Down (A Melanie Travis Mystery) by Laurien Berenson (Kensington Books) is $1.99

Book Description:

If Melanie Travis was planning on a quiet family summer with her Standard Poodle Faith, son Davey, and new husband Sam, her plans are about to turn upside down. An unexpected competition, a trip to New York, and–oh yes, a murder–later, Melanie finds herself in a choke collar of deceit and corruption.
When she receives the letter from the Champions Dog Food Company informing her that Faith has been selected as a finalist in the “All Dogs Are Champions” contest, Melanie is mystified–until she discovers it was Davey who entered Faith in the contest.

At the reception where they meet the other finalists, Melanie immediately picks up the scent that this pack is a bone’s throw away from a major dog fight. And when Larry Kim, one of the finalists, dies in a suspicious fall, something smells rotten to Melanie. With the final decision for a winner drawing near and the competition getting downright ferocious, Melanie and Faith will have to watch their backs–because Melanie’s digging may well unearth a barking-mad killer who’ll do anything to win.

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The President's Hat by Antoine Laurain from Skyscape (£0.99) is the Amazon UK Kindle Deal of the Day (August 14) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

Customer review: "The story flows wonderfully...and till the very end, keeps surprising the reader. It definitely is a little masterpiece of literature."

A charming fable about the power of a hat that takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride through French life during the Mitterrand years.

Dining alone in an elegant Parisian brasserie, accountant Daniel Mercier can hardly believe his eyes when President François Mitterrand sits down to eat at the table next to him. After the presidential party has gone, Daniel discovers that Mitterrand’s black felt hat has been left behind.

After a few moments’ soul-searching, Daniel decides to keep the hat as a souvenir of an extraordinary evening. It’s a perfect fit, and as he leaves the restaurant Daniel begins to feel somehow … different.

He's Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo from Harper Element (£0.99) is the Amazon UK Kindle Romance Daily Deal (August 14) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

Customer review: "If you're a woman who has ever sat by the phone willing it to ring, or become an expert in analysing male behaviour, then this is for you."

He's Just Not That Into You -- based on a popular episode of Sex and the City -- educates otherwise smart women on how to tell when a guy just doesn't like them enough, so they can stop wasting time making excuses for a dead-end relationship.

Reexamining familiar scenarios and classic mindsets that keep us in unsatisfying relationships, Behrendt and Tuccillo's wise and wry understanding of the sexes spares women hours of waiting by the phone, obsessing over the details with sympathetic girlfriends, and hoping his mixed messages really mean "I'm in love with you and want to be with you."

He's Just Not That Into You is provocative, hilarious, and, above all, intoxicatingly liberating. It deserves a place on every woman's night table. It knows you're a beautiful, smart, funny woman who deserves better. The next time you feel the need to start "figuring him out," consider the glorious thought that maybe He's just not that into you. And then set yourself loose to go find the one who is.

Why Have Kids?: A New Mom Explores the Truth About Parenting and Happiness by Jessica Valenti from Amazon (£0.99) is the Amazon UK Kindle Parenting Daily Deal (August 14) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

Customer review: "It's a great book on bringing up children/not bringing up children, and it's stories and statistics are easy to follow and understand."

A provocative and intimate exploration of modern parenthood by “a gutsy young third wave feminist” – The New York Times

If parenting is making Americans unhappy, if it’s impossible to “have it all,” if people don’t have the economic, social, or political structures needed to support parenting, then why do it? And why are anxious new parents flocking to every Tiger Mother and Bébé-raiser for advice on how to raise kids?

In Why Have Kids?, Valenti explores these controversial questions through on-the-ground reporting, startling new research, and her own unique experiences as a mom. She moves beyond the black and white “mommy wars” over natural parenting, discipline, and work-life balance to explore a more nuanced reality: one filled with ambivalence, joy, guilt, and exhaustion. A must read for parents as well as those considering starting a family, Why Have Kids? is an explosive addition to the conversation about modern parenthood.

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Blunt Instrument (Inspector Hannasyde) by Georgette Heyer from Sourcebooks Landmark ($1.99) is the Kindle Deal of the Day (August 14) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

* Also on Amazon CA

Product Description

Customer review: "A thrilling mystery novel filled with unique characters and a fast-paced plot."

Who would kill the perfect gentleman?

When Ernest Fletcher is found bludgeoned to death in his study, everyone is shocked and mystified: Ernest was well liked and respected, so who would have a motive for killing him?

Superintendent Hannasyde, with consummate skill, uncovers one dirty little secret after another, and with them, a host of people who all have reasons for wanting Fletcher dead. Then, a second murder is committed, giving a grotesque twist to a very unusual case, and Hannasyde realizes he's up against a killer on a mission...

Sugar Daddy: Travis Series, Book 1 by Lisa Kleypas from St. Martin's Press ($2.99) is the Kindle Romance Deal of the Day (August 14) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

* Also on Amazon CA

Product Description

Customer review: "An emotionally compelling and satisfying story of family, friendship, hope, and love."

Lisa Kleypas has enthralled millions of readers with her powerfully seductive novels. Now she delivers a story featuring her most unforgettable characters yet....

SHE'S FROM THE WRONG SIDE OF THE TRACKS
Liberty Jones has dreams and determination that will take her far away from Welcome, Texas---if she can keep her wild heart from ruling her mind. Hardy Cates sees Liberty as completely off-limits. His own ambitions are bigger than Welcome, and Liberty Jones is a complication he doesn't need. But something magical and potent draws them to each other, in a dangerous attraction that is stronger than both of them.

HE'S THE ONE MAN SHE CAN'T HAVE
When Hardy leaves town to pursue his plans, Liberty finds herself alone with a young sister to raise. Soon Liberty finds herself under the spell of a billionaire tycoon---a Sugar Daddy, one might say. But the relationship goes deeper than people think, and Liberty begins to discover secrets about her own family's past.

WILL THEY FIND THEIR HEARTS' DESIRES OR WILL HEARTBREAK TEAR THEM APART?
Two men. One woman. A choice that can make her or break her. A woman you'll root for every step of the way. A love story you'll never forget.

Cards of Grief by Jane Yolen from Open Road Media ($1.99) is the Kindle Sci-Fi / Fantasy Deal of the Day (August 14) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

Customer review: "This is a spellbinding, lyrical, and, thought provoking fantasy story."

Jane Yolen’s award-winning story about an alien civilization forever changed by the incursion of human social scientists and a mysterious ancient prophecy

The year is 2132 when members of the Anthropologist’s Guild set down on the planet Henderson’s IV, or L’Lal’lor as it is known to the native population. Charged with the nonintrusive study of alien cultures, the crew discovers a society containing no love or laughter. It is, instead, centered around death—a world of aristocratic and common folk in which grieving is an art and the cornerstone of life. But the alien civilization stands on the brink of astonishing change, heralded by the discovery of Linni, the Gray Wanderer, a young woman from the countryside whose arrival has been foretold for centuries. And for Anthropologist First Class Aaron Spenser, L’Lal’lor is a place of destructive temptations, seducing him with its mysterious, sad beauty, and leading him into an unthinkable criminal act.

Told from the shifting viewpoints of characters both alien and human, and through records of local lore and transcripts of court martial proceedings, Cards of Grief is a thoughtful, lyrical, and spellbinding tale of first contact. It is a true masterwork of world building from Jane Yolen, a premier crafter of speculative fiction and fantasy.

This ebook features a personal history by Jane Yolen including rare images from the author’s personal collection, as well as a note from the author about the making of the book.

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver from HarperCollins ($0.99) is the Kindle Teens Deal of the Day (August 14) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

* Also on Amazon CA

Product Description

Customer review: "A fast, page-turning story with adept teen dialogue emotional depth."

What if you had only one day to live? What would you do? Who would you kiss? And how far would you go to save your own life?

Samantha Kingston has it all: the world's most crush-worthy boyfriend, three amazing best friends, and first pick of everything at Thomas Jefferson High—from the best table in the cafeteria to the choicest parking spot. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life.

Instead, it turns out to be her last.

Then she gets a second chance. Seven chances, in fact. Reliving her last day during one miraculous week, she will untangle the mystery surrounding her death—and discover the true value of everything she is in danger of losing.

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Villa Triste by Lucretia Grindle from Grand Central Publishing ($1.99) is the NOOK Daily Find (August 14)

Product Description

Modern day mystery mixes with historical intrigue in this haunting novel by Lucretia Grindle (The Faces of Angels) where the wartime choices of two sisters in Nazi-occupied Italy reverberate in a present day murder investigation.

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** Now Price-matched on US Amazon

Villa Triste by Lucretia Grindle is $1.99 (Amazon US)

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Monsoon Season by Katie O'Rourke from Canvas (£0.99) is the Amazon UK Kindle Deal of the Day (August 15) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

Customer review: "Highly engaging characters, compelling plot development, beautifully evoked scenes...it had me hooked from the start."

Riley refuses to call herself a battered woman - she doesn't fit the profile.

When her boyfriend Ben hits her, she doesn't know what to call it. She does know to pack her things and run to the one place that feels safe - home.

Riley discovers she's pregnant and her emotions become tangled. She can't shake the fact that she's still in love with Ben...

A horrific accident then turns Riley's world even more upside down, forcing her to accept help from those around her. Before she can begin to heal, she must learn the difference between being independent and being alone.

A gripping emotional drama, perfect for fans of Anne Tyler and Anita Shreve.

Fury of Fire (Dragonfury Series #1) by Coreene Callahan from Montlake Romance (£0.99) is the Amazon UK Kindle Romance Daily Deal (August 15) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

Customer review: "This is the first book in a new paranormal romance series...The story is well paced and intense."

A clandestine race of half-dragon, half-humans known as dragon-shifters lives among us. Bastian, leader of the Nightfury dragon clan, is sworn to protect humankind at all costs. For him, honor and duty always come first. When the clan dictates he take a human mate to sire a son, he falters, aware that for a human to birth a dragon-shifter she must die. Myst, the woman given into his care, is the most extraordinary he’s ever met, and though he can’t bear the thought of harming her he is bound by duty.

Myst loves her life in the human world, but Bastian has captured her heart in an instant of electric connection. But Bastian and his warriors are in the middle of a deadly battle with the Razorback dragon-shifters, intent on killing every Nightfury clan member—and the humans they protect—the fate of their world and ours hangs in the balance.

An extraordinary blend of action, fantasy, and steamy romance, Fury of Fire brings to life a dangerous new world intertwined with the survival of humanity, all while exploring the meaning of honor and the nature of true love.

Keeping Quiet: Paul Nixon The Autobiography by Jon Colman and Paul Nixon from The History Press (£0.99) is the Amazon UK Kindle Biography Daily Deal (August 15) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

Customer review: "One of the best cricketing autobiographies I have read. Inspiring stuff from one of the game's great characters."

From Gower to Flintoff, Waugh to Vaughan, Cronje to Pietersen, Paul Nixon has shared a dressing room with some of the most evocative names in international and domestic cricket - and often enraged them on the field of play. The wicketkeeper, known as his sport's most prolific 'sledger', has amassed more than 20 years of stories from his career at the heart of the game and now reveals them in typically outspoken style. From 'Fredalo' to match-fixing, Nixon has experienced some of the most notorious episodes in cricket history, possesses strident opinions on the game and has a track record of success in the English first-class game and the Twenty20 revolution. With an accent on off-the-field anecdotes, Nixon also lays bare the personality that led the Australian legend Steve Waugh to compare him to: 'a mosquito buzzing around in the night, that needs to be swatted by always escapes.'

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As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto by Joan Reardon from Rux Martin/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ($1.99) is the Kindle Deal of the Day (August 15) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

* Also on Amazon CA

Product Description

Customer review: "This collection of letters chronicles the creation of Mastering the Art of French Cooking."

Amazon Best Books of the Month, December 2010

With her outsize personality, Julia Child is known around the world by her first name alone. But despite that familiarity, how much do we really know of the inner Julia?

Now more than 200 letters exchanged between Julia and Avis DeVoto, her friend and unofficial literary agent memorably introduced in the hit movie Julie & Julia, open the window on Julia’s deepest thoughts and feelings. This riveting correspondence, in print for the first time, chronicles the blossoming of a unique and lifelong friendship between the two women and the turbulent process of Julia’s creation of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, one of the most influential cookbooks ever written.
Frank, bawdy, funny, exuberant, and occasionally agonized, these letters show Julia, first as a new bride in Paris, then becoming increasingly worldly and adventuresome as she follows her diplomat husband in his postings to Nice, Germany, and Norway.

With commentary by the noted food historian Joan Reardon, and covering topics as diverse as the lack of good wine in the United States, McCarthyism, and sexual mores, these astonishing letters show America on the verge of political, social, and gastronomic transformation.

Fully Engaged by Eve Gaddy from Bell Bridge Books ($1.99) is the Kindle Romance Deal of the Day (August 15) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

* Also on Amazon CA

Product Description

Customer review: "If you love a story with a strong heroine and a to-die-for hero, this is the book for you."

Their passion is one fire they can’t put out.

Nine years ago, he left her alone and pregnant. Now he’s back.

When hotshot firefighter Callie Kilpatrick gets a new partner, he’s the last man she ever wanted to meet again: Rick Montana, the man she once loved and planned to marry, the man who left her without explanation. Rick resurrects all the old, unresolved feelings she had for him. Though she never told him about her pregnancy, she blames him for the loss of their child.

As for Rick, he's never forgotten Callie. But as her anger singes him, he wonders if he’ll ever be able to get past the walls she’s built around her heart. When they must work together to discover a murderer, they discover that passion still burns hot between them.

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ($1.99) is the Kindle Sci-Fi / Fantasy Deal of the Day (August 15) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

* Also on Amazon CA

Product Description

Customer review: "A harrowing story that perfectly blends alternate history with original science fiction."

“The single most resonant and carefully imagined book of Dick’s career.” – New York Times

It's America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. The few Jews who still survive hide under assumed names. In San Francisco, the I Ching is as common as the Yellow Pages. All because some twenty years earlier the United States lost a war—and is now occupied by Nazi Germany and Japan.

This harrowing, Hugo Award-winning novel is the work that established Philip K. Dick as an innovator in science fiction while breaking the barrier between science fiction and the serious novel of ideas. In it Dick offers a haunting vision of history as a nightmare from which it may just be possible to wake.

Winner of the Hugo Award

Virtuosity by Jessica Martinez from Simon Pulse ($1.99) is the Kindle Kids Deal of the Day (August 15) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

* Also on Amazon CA

Product Description

Customer review: "An intensely romantic story about a fierce rivalry and a forbidden love"

An intensely romantic, “brilliant debut” (Kirkus Reviews) about a dangerous addiction, a fierce rivalry, and a forbidden love.
Now is not the time for Carmen to fall in love. And Jeremy is hands-down the wrong guy for her to fall for. He is infuriating, arrogant, and the only person who can stand in the way of Carmen getting the one thing she wants most: to win the prestigious Guarneri competition. Carmen’s whole life is violin, and until she met Jeremy, her whole focus was winning. But what if Jeremy isn’t just hot…what if Jeremy is better?
Carmen knows that kissing Jeremy can’t end well, but she just can't stay away. Nobody else understands her—and riles her up—like he does. Still, she can’t trust him with her biggest secret: She is so desperate to win, she takes antianxiety drugs to perform, and what started as an easy fix has become a hungry addiction. Carmen is sick of not feeling anything on stage and even sicker of always doing what she’s told, doing what’s expected.
Sometimes being on top just means you have a long way to fall….

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Shelter (Mickey Bolitar Series #1) by Harlan Coben from Penguin Group ($2.99) is the NOOK Daily Find (August 15)

Product Description

Countless readers thrill to the adventures of Harlan Coben's sports agent Myron Bolitar. Myron's nephew Mickey has a knack for adventure, too, Investigating the disappearance of his girlfriend, Mickey quickly learns that everything he thought he knew was a lie. Intrigue, it seems, runs in the family.

** Price-matched on US Amazon

Shelter (Mickey Bolitar Series #1) by Harlan Coben is $2.99 (Amazon US)

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Amazon Kindle Promo: 30 Kids' Books for $1 Each

30 Kids' Books for $1 Each. Offer valid through August 31, 2013.

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The Complete Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan is $9.99

A collection fit for the (Egyptian) gods! All three books in the blockbuster Kane Chronicles trilogy (The Red Pyramid, The Throne of Fire, and The Serpent's Shadow) are together at last. This set will be treasured by readers of all ages, whether they're experiencing Sadie and Carter's amazing adventures for the first time or are faithful fans eager to devour the saga all over again.

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Running With the Kenyans: Discovering the secrets of the fastest people on earth by Adharanand Finn from Faber and Faber Non Fiction (£0.99) is the Amazon UK Kindle Deal of the Day (August 16) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

Customer review: "It's much more than a book about long-distance running - it's also part travel book and part personal journey."

“Completely satisfying, as well-paced and exhilarating as a good run.”—The Boston Globe

Whether running is your recreation or your religion, Adharanand Finn’s incredible journey to the elite training camps of Kenya will captivate and inspire you, as he ventures to uncover the secrets of the fastest people on earth. Finn’s mesmerizing quest combines a fresh look at barefoot running, practical advice on the sport, and the fulfillment of a lifelong dream: to run with his heroes. Uprooting his family of five, Finn traveled to a small, chaotic town in the Rift Valley province of Kenya—a mecca for long-distance runners, thanks to its high altitude, endless paths, and some of the top training schools in the world. There Finn would run side by side with Olympic champions, young hopefuls, and barefoot schoolchildren, and meet a cast of unforgettable characters. Amid the daily challenges of training and of raising a family abroad, Finn would learn invaluable lessons about running—and about life.

Plain Jane: A Novel of Regency England - Being the Second Volume of A House for the Season by M. C. Beaton (writing as Marion Chesney) from Canvas (£0.99) is the Amazon UK Kindle Romance Daily Deal (August 16) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

Customer review: "I enjoyed this light hearted Regency romance with its many twists and turns, and the entertaining characters."

The second book in the Regency Romance series, The House for a Season, from the bestselling author M.C Beaton.

It's up to the servants of No. 67 Clarges Street to hatch a scheme... and arrange a match!

'Oh, to be as beautiful as Euphemia!' sighs plain Jane Hart when she joins her sister at No.67 for the Season, as then Lord Tregarthan might notice her... as she has noticed him and forever lost her heart.

And while it is Euphemia's fate to flit her way through balls and into the arms of a marquis, Jane's is to stay at home... until the Downstairs staff transform the plain Miss into the Season's sensation and send her waltzing into a daring liaison with the man of her dreams!

Keeping Quiet: Paul Nixon The Autobiography by Jon Colman and Paul Nixon from Icon Books (£0.99) is the Amazon UK Kindle Science Daily Deal (August 16) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

Customer review: "...eases you effortlessly into the some of the most complex ideas in physics by juxtaposing [with] the personal stories of the authors."

“A lucid account of quantum theory (and why you should care) combined with a gripping narrative.”—San Francisco Chronicle

Quantum theory is weird. As Niels Bohr said, if you weren’t shocked by quantum theory, you didn’t really understand it. For most people, quantum theory is synonymous with mysterious, impenetrable science. And in fact for many years it was equally baffling for scientists themselves. In this tour de force of science history, Manjit Kumar gives a dramatic and superbly written account of this fundamental scientific revolution, focusing on the central conflict between Einstein and Bohr over the nature of reality and the soul of science. This revelatory book takes a close look at the golden age of physics, the brilliant young minds at its core—and how an idea ignited the greatest intellectual debate of the twentieth century.

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The Corpse Reader by Antonio Garrido from AmazonCrossing ($1.99) is the Kindle Deal of the Day (August 16) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

* Also on Amazon CA

Product Description

Customer review: "A harrowing novel that draws readers into an ingenious and fascinating plot."

In 2012, The Corpse Reader received the Zaragoza International Prize for best historical novel published in Spain (Premio Internacional de Novela Histórica Ciudad de Zaragoza).

After his grandfather dies, avid scholar and budding forensic investigator Cí Song begrudgingly gives up his studies to help his family. But when another tragedy strikes, he’s forced to run and also deemed a fugitive. Dishonored, he has no choice but to accept work as a lowly gravedigger, a position that allows him to sharpen his corpse-reading skills. Soon, he can deduce whether a person killed himself—or was murdered.

His prowess earns him notoriety, and Cí receives orders to unearth the perpetrator of a horrific series of mutilations and deaths at the Imperial Court. Cí’s gruesome investigation quickly grows complicated thanks to old loyalties and the presence of an alluring, enigmatic woman. But he remains driven by his passion for truth—especially once the killings threaten to take down the Emperor himself.

Inspired by Song Cí, considered to be the founding father of CSI-style forensic science, this harrowing novel set during the thirteenth-century Tsong Dynasty draws readers into a multilayered, ingenious plot as disturbing as it is fascinating.

The Perfect Marriage by Kimberla Lawson Roby from Grand Central Publishing ($2.99) is the Kindle Romance Deal of the Day (August 16) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

* Also on Amazon CA

Product Description

Customer review: "This book is not only fun any entertaining, but truly eye-opening!"

The New York Times bestselling novel from the author of the Reverend Curtis Black series...

ADDICTION. DECEPTION.
PRETTY PICTURES HIDE UGLY SECRETS.

Denise and Derrek Shaw are the perfect American couple. Happily married for fifteen years, they have a wonderful daughter, Mackenzie, successful careers, and a beautiful home in a posh Chicago suburb. They are attractive, respected . . . and hiding a shocking secret: a dangerous addiction to drugs.

It started innocently enough. Denise occasionally used prescription drugs to help her deal with the long hours and demanding nature of her job. Derrek, also under pressure at work, began using cocaine socially with some of his colleagues.

They can quit whenever they want to. At least, that's what Denise would like to believe . . .

As her job becomes more stressful, Denise can no longer get through the day without a fix. Derrek realizes his harmless habit has become anything but, and desperately wants to get clean. However, his attempts are derailed when there is a sudden family tragedy. Once soul mates, now this husband and wife are quickly losing the immense love that had been the cornerstone of their marriage. With her parents spiraling out of control, Mackenzie makes an unexpected move to take matters into her own hands. Is her sacrifice too late-or is there still hope? Is there a final chance to save the Shaw family?

Transmigration by J. T. McIntosh from Prologue Books ($0.99) is the Kindle Sci-Fi / Fantasy Deal of the Day (August 16) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

* Also on Amazon CA

Product Description

Customer review: "This wonderful science fiction story is a daring departure from the pulp canon."

One man’s terrifying journey out of his mind - and into many others!

Fletcher was dying. But it wasn’t that simple. His mind refused to follow his body; instead, it moved from brain to brain: young, old, healthy, ill, men, women. But now he found himself in the brain of Charles Searle, the twisted scientist who had altered Fletcher’s mind, leaving him a disembodied personality.

Fletcher now shared his brain.

And Searle was dying.

Sherlock Bones and the Missing Cheese by Susan Stevens Crummel from Two Lions ($1.99) is the Kindle Kids Deal of the Day (August 16) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

* Also on Amazon CA

Product Description

Customer review: "A fun book kids and adults will enjoy!"

What’s that smell in the Dell? It comes from a cheese, a great big cheese, a smelly, scrumptious cheese, if you please, made from the milk of a cantankerous cow—oh, wow! The one-horned, two-eared, three-legged Cowabunga!
But the Cowabunga cheese has gone missing, and Sherlock Bones is on the case! That brainy bloodhound must use all five of his senses to track down the thief.

Children will have fun following the clues in this roll-off-your-tongue read-aloud inspired by the popular children’s song “The Farmer in the Dell” and illustrated with Dorothy Donohue’s lively signature cut-paper artwork.

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Little Children: A Novel by Tom Perrotta from St. Martin's Press ($3.99) is the NOOK Daily Find (August 16)

Product Description

Tom Perrotta (Nine Inches, The Leftovers) earned a Best Screenplay Oscar nomination for his work on the movie version of his captivating character study, but nothing captures the suburban grasp for fleeting happiness, willful resistance to adulthood, and roiling psychology of relationships than the original novel itself.

** Better than Price-matched on US Amazon

Little Children: A Novel by Tom Perrotta is $2.99 (Amazon US)

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How I Stole Johnny Depp’s Alien Girlfriend by Gary Ghislain (Chronicle Books) is $1.99

Book Description:

David is the son of a famous French child psychologist.

Zelda is his father’s new patient.

Zelda believes she’s from outer space. David believes she’s TOTALLY BONKERS. But totally bonkers doesn’t mean much to a boy who’s 14 and in love, and soon David and Zelda are tearing around Paris as she looks for her chosen one so that she can take him back to her planet. And who is her chosen one? The same guy millions of girls wish they could fly away with: Johnny Depp!

This wacky novel by a debut author is an irresistible mix of love story, police caper, sci-fi adventure, and laugh-out-loud fun.

In Darkness by Nick Lake (Bloomsbury USA Childrens) is $2.99

Book Description:

Winner of the 2013 Printz Award for Young Adult Literature.

This is the story of”Shorty”-a 15-year-old boy trapped in a collapsed hospital during the earthquake in Haiti. Surrounded by the bodies of the dead, increasingly weak from lack of food and water, Shorty begins to hallucinate. As he waits in darkness for a rescue that may never come, a mystical bridge seems to emerge between him and Haitian leader Toussaint L’Ouverture, uniting the two in their darkest suffering-and their hope.

A modern teen and a black slave, separated by hundreds of years. Yet in some strange way, the boy in the ruins of Port au Prince and the man who led the struggle for Haiti’s independence might well be one and the same . . .

Dare Me: A Novel by Megan Abbott (Reagan Arthur Books) is $3.79

Book Description:

Amazon Best Books of the Month, August 2012

Addy Hanlon has always been Beth Cassidy’s best friend and trusted lieutenant. Beth calls the shots and Addy carries them out, a long-established order of things that has brought them to the pinnacle of their high-school careers. Now they’re seniors who rule the intensely competitive cheer squad, feared and followed by the other girls — until the young new coach arrives.

Cool and commanding, an emissary from the adult world just beyond their reach, Coach Colette French draws Addy and the other cheerleaders into her life. Only Beth, unsettled by the new regime, remains outside Coach’s golden circle, waging a subtle but vicious campaign to regain her position as “top girl” — both with the team and with Addy herself.

Then a suicide focuses a police investigation on Coach and her squad. After the first wave of shock and grief, Addy tries to uncover the truth behind the death — and learns that the boundary between loyalty and love can be dangerous terrain.

The raw passions of girlhood are brought to life in this taut, unflinching exploration of friendship, ambition, and power. Award-winning novelist Megan Abbott, writing with what Tom Perrotta has hailed as “total authority and an almost desperate intensity,” provides a harrowing glimpse into the dark heart of the all-American girl.

A Thousand Perfect Things by Kay Kenyon (Avon) is $3.99

Book Description:

In this epic new work, the award-winning Kenyon creates an alternate 19th century with two warring continents on an alternate earth: the scientific Anglica (England) and magical Bharata (India).

Emboldened by her grandfather’s final whispered secret of a magical lotus, Tori Harding, a young Victorian woman and aspiring botanist, must journey to Bharata, with its magics, intrigues and ghosts, to claim her fate. There she will face a choice between two suitors and two irreconcilable realms.

In a magic-infused world of silver tigers, demon birds and enduring gods, as a great native mutiny sweeps up the continent, Tori will find the thing she most desires, less perfect than she had hoped and stranger than she could have dreamed.

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New Girl by Paige Harbison from MIRA Ink (£0.99) is the Amazon UK Kindle Deal of the Day (August 17) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

Customer review: "...intriguing, captivating and well-written...I was constantly drawn back to the story."

The Queen Bee’s missing. Will you be next? It’s hard fitting in as the new girl among the rich elite at Manderley Academy especially when you’re assigned to the old room of the perfect, popular Becca – who’s disappeared. Everyone acts like it’s your fault – and you can’t leave the mystery alone. What really happened to Becca? And what other sinister secrets have been kept hidden in the school’s dark hallways? Learning to survive Manderley’s cut-throat social scene, you can’t help but follow in Becca’s footsteps, even falling for Max, the boy she left behind. Although sometimes it seems that Becca’s still out there, watching you take her place. Waiting to take it back…

Charming the Shrew (The Legacy of MacLeod) by Laurin Wittig from Montlake Romance (£0.99) is the Amazon UK Kindle Romance Daily Deal (August 17) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

Customer review: "When Catriona meets a handsome traveller, she cannot anticipate the treacherous plot--or passion--that lays ahead."

Returning home to the Scottish Highlands after battling the English, Tayg Munro receives a hero’s welcome—and a shocking ultimatum. In order to take his place as heir to the chiefdom of Culrain, he must choose a wife within the month or have one chosen for him. Angered by his family's decree, Tayg delays the inevitable by volunteering for a mission for the king that takes him deep into the Highlands. Preoccupied by his marital obligation, the brooding warrior sets out with no hint of the fateful encounter that awaits him...

Catriona MacLeod is known throughout the Highlands as the Shrew of Assynt, thanks to her razor-sharp tongue and her unwillingness to yield to her five brothers. When she's told that her eldest brother has promised her hand in marriage to a man she has good reason to hate, she flees into the Scottish wilderness, determined to seek the king’s intervention in her plight. When she reluctantly joins forces with a handsome traveler, she cannot anticipate the treacherous plot that will soon embroil them—nor the passion that will ignite between them.

The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer from Faber and Faber Non Fiction (£0.99) is the Amazon UK Kindle Politics Daily Deal (August 17) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

Customer review: "This is the best book about the USA that I have read in the last ten years…it captures the human, moral costs of radical free-market solutions."

A New York Times Bestseller

A riveting examination of a nation in crisis, from one of the finest political journalists of our generation

American democracy is beset by a sense of crisis. Seismic shifts during a single generation have created a country of winners and losers, allowing unprecedented freedom while rending the social contract, driving the political system to the verge of breakdown, and setting citizens adrift to find new paths forward. In The Unwinding, George Packer, author of The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, tells the story of the United States over the past three decades in an utterly original way, with his characteristically sharp eye for detail and gift for weaving together complex narratives.

The Unwinding journeys through the lives of several Americans, including Dean Price, the son of tobacco farmers, who becomes an evangelist for a new economy in the rural South; Tammy Thomas, a factory worker in the Rust Belt trying to survive the collapse of her city; Jeff Connaughton, a Washington insider oscillating between political idealism and the lure of organized money; and Peter Thiel, a Silicon Valley billionaire who questions the Internet’s significance and arrives at a radical vision of the future. Packer interweaves these intimate stories with biographical sketches of the era’s leading public figures, from Newt Gingrich to Jay-Z, and collages made from newspaper headlines, advertising slogans, and song lyrics that capture the flow of events and their undercurrents.

The Unwinding portrays a superpower in danger of coming apart at the seams, its elites no longer elite, its institutions no longer working, its ordinary people left to improvise their own schemes for success and salvation. Packer’s novelistic and kaleidoscopic history of the new America is his most ambitious work to date.

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Courtiers: The Secret History of the Georgian Court by Lucy Worsley from Walker Books ($2.99) is the Kindle Deal of the Day (August 17) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

Customer review: "An indelible portrait of court life leading up to the famous reign of George III."

Kensington Palace is now most famous as the former home of Diana, Princess of Wales, but the palace's glory days came between 1714 and 1760, during the reigns of George I and II . In the eighteenth century, this palace was a world of skulduggery, intrigue, politicking, etiquette, wigs, and beauty spots, where fans whistled open like switchblades and unusual people were kept as curiosities. Lucy Worsley's The Courtiers charts the trajectory of the fantastically quarrelsome Hanovers and the last great gasp of British court life. Structured around the paintings of courtiers and servants that line the walls of the King's Staircase of Kensington Palace-paintings you can see at the palace today-The Courtiers goes behind closed doors to meet a pushy young painter, a maid of honor with a secret marriage, a vice chamberlain with many vices, a bedchamber woman with a violent husband, two aging royal mistresses, and many more. The result is an indelible portrait of court life leading up to the famous reign of George III , and a feast for both Anglophiles and lovers of history and royalty.

Summer in Napa (A St. Helena Vineyard Novel) by Marina Adair from Montlake Romance ($1.99) is the Kindle Romance Deal of the Day (August 17) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

* Also on Amazon CA

Product Description

Customer review: "I would recommend this to anyone who wants a quick and fun beach read for the summer."

When Alexis “Lexi” Moreau caught her husband, Jeff, sampling the sous-chef’s more intimate wares in their New York restaurant, she ran—all the way back to her hometown of St. Helena, California. Six months later, Lexi has no husband and no restaurant. But she does have a three-step plan: First, convert her grandmother’s bakery into her dream bistro. Second, ignore Grandma’s matchmaking attempts. And third, avoid Marco DeLuca, her ex’s commitment-phobic, distractingly sexy best friend.

In school Lexi was off-limits for Marco. After all, she was his buddy’s girl. But she’s still as smart and as gorgeous—and apparently as immune to his charms—as she used to be. Yet the simple fake romance they agree upon to dodge Lexi’s grandmother’s matchmaking plans soon turns deliciously complicated. And the sultry summer might bring together all the right ingredients for Marco to win the only woman he’s ever wanted.

Earthlight: Space Trilogy, Book 2 by Arthur C. Clarke from RosettaBooks ($1.99) is the Kindle Sci-Fi / Fantasy Deal of the Day (August 17) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

* Also on Amazon CA

Product Description

Customer review: "This fantastic novel has realistic, hard-hitting speculation about future conflict."

Two hundred years after humans first touched down on the surface of the Moon, there are permanent settlements there—as well as on Venus and Mars. The inhabitants of these colonies have formed their own political alliance: the Federation.

On the Moon, a government agent from Earth is hunting a suspected spy at a prominent observatory. He is caught up in the larger political struggle between Earth’s government and that of the Federation, and ultimately must struggle for his life—in the beautiful and barren landscape of the Moon under Earth’s light.

The Forsaken: The Forsaken Trilogy by Lisa M. Stasse from Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers ($1.99) is the Kindle Teens Deal of the Day (August 17) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

* Also on Amazon CA

Product Description

Customer review: "A heart-stopping and action packed dystopian novel that will leave you breathless!"

Choose a tribe. Watch your back. And don’t stop running.
Filled with thrilling adventure and romance, The Forsaken is praised by EntertainmentWeekly.com as “a fast-paced novel [that] you’ll get sucked into. You just can’t seem to put [it] down.”


As an obedient orphan of the U.N.A. (the super-country that was once Mexico, the US, and Canada), Alenna learned at an early age to blend in and be quiet—having your parents taken by the police will do that to a girl. But Alenna can’t help standing out when she fails a test that all sixteen-year-olds have to take: The test says she has a high capacity for brutal violence, and so she is sent to the wheel, an island where all would-be criminals end up.


The life expectancy of prisoners on the wheel is just two years, but with dirty, violent, and chaotic conditions, the time seems a lot longer as Alenna is forced to deal with civil wars for land ownership and machines that snatch kids out of their makeshift homes. Desperate, she and a charismatic warrior named Liam concoct a potentially fatal plan to flee the island. Survival may seem impossible, but Alenna is determined to achieve it anyway.

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Hour of the Rat by Lisa Brackmann from Soho Press ($1.99) is the NOOK Daily Find (August 17)

Product Description

Iraq War vet Ellie McEnroe has settled into a pretty good life in Lisa Brackmann's smart, sharp, and hilarious thriller set in Chinese citiscapes and countrysides. When she finds that her army buddy's brother is an activist on the run in China, she's drawn into a web of international intrigue. But then again, it's better than dealing with her visiting mother...

** Better than Price-matched on US Amazon

Hour of the Rat by Lisa Brackmann is $1.39 (Amazon US)

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Midnight Sacrifice by Melinda Leigh from Montlake Romance (£0.99) is the Amazon UK Kindle Deal of the Day (August 18) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

Customer review: "I was immediately drawn into Jayne's world. What a heroine; smart, not over the top, easy to identify with."

One by one, people are mysteriously disappearing from a small Maine town.
Four months ago, a ruthless murderer killed two people and kidnapped three more, including Danny Sullivan’s sister, who barely escaped. Unfortunately so did the killer, vanishing without a trace into the vast wilderness. When the police fail to find his sister's captor, Danny returns to Maine to hunt him down.

He begins his search with another survivor, bed and breakfast owner Mandy Brown, but her refusal to cooperate raises Danny’s suspicions. What is the beautiful innkeeper hiding?

Mandy Brown has a secret. But sexy Danny Sullivan, his relentless questions, and the desire that simmers between them threaten to expose the truth. A revelation that puts her family in danger. As more people disappear, it becomes clear the killer is planning another ritual…and that he’s circling in on Mandy.

No Sex in the City by Randa Abdel-Fattah from Saqi Books (£0.99) is the Amazon UK Kindle Romance Daily Deal (August 18) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

Customer review: "This was such a great book to read. Randa has such a gift with words and I look forward to reading more."

It is a truth universally acknowledged . . . Esma is a modern Muslim woman with an age-old dilemma. She is well-educated, well-travelled and has excellent taste in music, but the hunt for Mr Right leads her to a number of Mr Wrongs. Together with wild-haired Ruby, principled Lisa, and drop-dead gorgeous Nirvana, Esma forms the No Sex in the City Club. Her quest for The One (or Mr Almost-Perfect) was never going to be easy, but soon enough it takes an unexpected and thrilling detour.

Adventures of a Reluctant Boating Wife by Angela Rice from Adlard Coles (£0.99) is the Amazon UK Kindle Memoir Daily Deal (August 18) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

Customer review: "A perfect read for anyone aspiring to the full boating experience or who has survived it."

When I was first invited by a new - and handsome - man to the local Yacht Club to see his boat, I happily conjured up alluring pictures of me in an expensive bikini and a great suntan. It didn’t occur to me that "see my boat" might actually mean going out in the thing....’ Before she knew it, Angela Rice had agreed to a sailing trip on the notorious west coast of Scotland – and to marry her skipper. The voyage did nothing to allay her primal suspicion of anything afloat. But years later, one sunny Boat Show day, she discovered the lifestyle lure of powerboats. Speculating they might be less confusing and scary than their sailing counterparts, she cajoled her man into crossing to the dark side – with wild promises to try to become competent. Reluctance slowly gave way to relish, scepticism to skippering, the Solent to the Seine.....Originally published as a series in Motorboat & Yachting magazine, and illustrated with wonderful cartoons by David Semple, this is a funny and engaging account of one woman’s relationship with the sea, a boat and her husband.

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Ghosts of Manhattan: A Novel by Douglas Brunt from Touchstone ($2.99) is the Kindle Deal of the Day (August 18) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

* Also on Amazon CA

Product Description

Customer review: "A comical depiction of freewheeling Wall Street bond traders during their pre-collapse heyday."

A wryly comic, first-person debut novel offering a withering view of life on Wall Street from the perspective of an unhappy insider who is too hooked on the money to find a way out, even as his career is ruining his marriage and corroding his soul.

It’s 2005. Nick Farmer is a thirty-five-year-old bond trader with Bear Stearns clearing seven figures a year. The novelty of a work-related nightlife centering on liquor, hookers, and cocaine has long since worn thin, though Nick remains keenly addicted to his annual bonus. But the lifestyle is taking a toll on his marriage and on him.

When a nerdy analyst approaches him with apocalyptic prognostications of where Bear’s high-flying mortgage-backed securities trading may lead, Nick is presented with the kind of ethical dilemma he’s spent a lifetime avoiding. Throw in a hot financial journalist who seems to be more interested in him than in the percolating financial armageddon and the prospect that his own wife may have found a new romantic interest of her own, and you have the recipe for Nick’s personal and professional implosion.

By turns hilarious and harrowing, Ghosts of Manhattan follows a winning but flawed character as he struggles to find the right path in a complicated urban heart of darkness.

Barbara Longley's Perfect, Indiana books (Montlake Romance) are $1.99 each as the Kindle Romance Deal of the Day (August 10) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

Today only, two exciting romance novels.

Amber Lynn Natusch’s The Caged series (books 1-5) are $1.99 or less each as the Kindle Sci-Fi / Fantasy Deal of the Day (August 18) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

Today only, five books in the Caged series.

Storm Song by Nancy Viau from Two Lions ($1.99) is the Kindle Kids Deal of the Day (August 17) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

* Also on Amazon CA

Product Description

Customer review: "A sweet story that captures the excitement of a thunderstorm."

Age Level: 3 and up | Grade Level: Kindergarten and up
As thunder and lightning approach, a family gathers inside to play, sing, eat, and snuggle together until the weather clears. This sweet story captures both the excitement of a thunderstorm and the reassurance children need during a storm. The lively, rhythmic text mimics the storm sounds while the bold, playful art conveys this special family time.

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Running with the Giants: What the Old Testament Heroes Want You to Know About Life and Leadership by John C. Maxwell from FaithWords ($2.99) is the NOOK Daily Find (August 18)

Product Description

What can lessons do the heroes of the Old Testament hold for the modern world? Leadership expert John C. Maxwell shows how, especially in this era of seemingly rampant crime and corruption, looking at these icons of faith can --and should -- be a great source of spiritual and motivational guidance.

** Price-matched on US Amazon

Running with the Giants: What the Old Testament Heroes Want You to Know About Life and Leadership by John C. Maxwell is $2.99 (Amazon US)

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The Kid Table by Andrea Seigel (Bloomsbury USA Childrens) is $2.99

Book Description:

Ingrid Bell and her five teenage cousins are such a close-knit group that they don’t really mind sitting at the kid table-even if they have to share it with a four-year-old. But then Brianne, the oldest cousin, lands a seat at the adult table and leaves her cousins shocked and confused. What does it take to graduate from the kid table?

Over the course of five family events, Ingrid chronicles the coming-of-age of her generation. Her cousins each grapple with growing pains, but it is Ingrid who truly struggles as she considers what it means to grow up. When first love comes in the form of first betrayal (he’s Brianne’s boyfriend), Ingrid is forced to question her own personality and how she fits into her family. The cousins each take their own path toward graduating into adulthood-only to realize that maybe the kid table was where they wanted to be all along.

Almost a reverse coming-of-age, this touching and hilariously funny novel will appeal to any reader who has sat at the kid table . . . or is still sitting there!

The Best School Year Ever by Barbara Robinson (HarperCollins) is $1.99

Book Description:

The Worst Kids in the History of the World!

When anything goes wrong at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School, from the hexing of Bus Six to the mysterious disappearance of the kindergarten gerbil, it’s sure to have a Herdman behind it. The Herdmans are more than famous — they’re outlaws. They smoke cigars, lie, and set fire to things, and that’s only when they bother to come to school!

Then a school project forces the students to think of compliments for all their classmates — including the Herdmans. Is it possible that behind their outrageous pranks there may be something good about this crazy clan after all?

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up

Death Trap by M. William Phelps (Pinnacle Books) is $2.99

Book Description:

It started when Alan Bates and his new wife arrived at his ex’s house to pick up his two daughters for a weekend visit. Then two charred bodies were found in a burned-out car on a lonely Georgia road. . .and investigators pieced together a shattering story of a vicious divorce, a spurned woman’s bitter rage, and a thirst for revenge that led to cruel, unflinching murder.

Updating this gripping true-life thriller with shocking new details, M. William Phelps uncovers the cold heart of an unthinkable crime.

“Eye-opening. . . Phelps’s writing reads like a mystery novel.” — Suspense Magazine

The Lighthouse by Alison Moore (Salt Publishing) is $3.11

Book Description:

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2012; Shortlisted for New Writer of the Year in the 2012; Specsavers National Book Awards

On the outer deck of a North Sea ferry stands Futh, a middle-aged and newly separated man, on his way to Germany for a restorative walking holiday. After an inexplicably hostile encounter with a hotel landlord, Futh sets out along the Rhine. As he contemplates an earlier trip to Germany and the things he has done in his life, he does not foresee the potentially devastating consequences of things not done.

“The Lighthouse”, Alison Moore’s first novel, tells the tense, gripping story of a man trying to find himself, but becoming lost.

Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah (St. Martin’s Press) is $3.99

Book Description:

Can a woman ever really know herself if she doesn’t know her mother?

From the author of the smash-hit bestseller Firefly Lane and True Colors comes a powerful, heartbreaking novel that illuminates the intricate mother-daughter bond and explores the enduring links between the present and the past

Meredith and Nina Whitson are as different as sisters can be. One stayed at home to raise her children and manage the family apple orchard; the other followed a dream and traveled the world to become a famous photojournalist. But when their beloved father falls ill, Meredith and Nina find themselves together again, standing alongside their cold, disapproving mother, Anya, who even now, offers no comfort to her daughters. As children, the only connection between them was the Russian fairy tale Anya sometimes told the girls at night. On his deathbed, their father extracts a promise from the women in his life: the fairy tale will be told one last time—and all the way to the end. Thus begins an unexpected journey into the truth of Anya’s life in war-torn Leningrad, more than five decades ago. Alternating between the past and present, Meredith and Nina will finally hear the singular, harrowing story of their mother’s life, and what they learn is a secret so terrible and terrifying that it will shake the very foundation of their family and change who they believe they are.

Stories: All-New Tales ed by Neil Gaiman & Al Sarrantonio (HarperCollins) is $3.79

Book Description:

This astonishing collection of all-new tales by some of the most acclaimed writers at work today is called, simply, Stories.

Edited by Neil Gaiman (Sandman, The Graveyard Book, Anansi Boys, Coraline) and Al Sarrantonio (award-winning author of forty books and editor of numerous collections), Stories presents never before published short works from a veritable Who’s Who of contemporary literature—breathtaking inventions from the likes of Lawrence Block, Roddy Doyle, Joanne Harris, Joe Hill, Walter Mosley, Joyce Carol Oates, Stewart O’Nan, Chuck Palahniuk, Carolyn Parkhurst, Jodi Picoult, Peter Straub…and, of course, the inimitable Neil Gaiman himself.

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A Gay and Melancholy Sound by Merle Miller from AmazonEncore (£0.99) is the Amazon UK Kindle Deal of the Day (August 17) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

Customer review: "...first published in 1961 but it feels very fresh, as Bland's voice is so strong and the targets of his anger so relevant."

The first book in nationally renowned librarian Nancy Pearl’s new <em>Book Lust Rediscoveries</em> series, this lost literary classic is available for the first time in decades. As funny and entertaining as it is captivating and heartrending, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Melancholy-Sound-Pearls-Rediscoveries-ebook/dp/B006VFZPK8/?tag=skim0x3783-21" target="_blank">A Gay and Melancholy Sound</a> is a shattering depiction of modern disconnection and the tragic consequences of a life bereft of love.

Joshua Bland has lived the kind of life many would define as extraordinary. Born in a small Iowa town to a controlling, delusional mother who had always wanted a daughter rather than a son, her anger at him colors his life. His father, a compassionate drinker incapable of dealing with Joshua’s mother, walks out on his wife and son, leaving a vacuum in the family that is damagingly filled by his tutor-cum-stepfather Petrarch Pavan, scion of a wealthy New York family who has secrets of his own. Playing on Joshua’s brilliance, Petrarch trains him to win a nationwide knowledge competition, but Joshua’s disappointing results in the finals are met with anger and disbelief by both his mother and stepfather. If Petrarch was unsuccessful in teaching Joshua the information he needed to win the contest, he had more success in instilling Joshua with the cynicism, self-doubt, and self-hatred that fill his own soul.

Enlisting in the army during World War II, he serves first as an infantryman, where his irreverent letters home turn him into a best-selling author. Then, as a paratrooper, he meets the physical challenges he thought were beyond his reach and helps free the concentration camps before being wounded as the Allied forces free Buchenwald. Back home after the war, he becomes a wildly successful producer—and all of this by the age of thirty-seven. But when his production company flounders amid critical and financial woes, the reality of who he is becomes perfectly, depressingly clear: he has had a lifetime of extraordinary experiences—and no emotional connection to any of it.

Bad Sisters by Rebecca Chance from Simon & Schuster UK (£0.99) is the Amazon UK Kindle Romance Daily Deal (August 17) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

Customer review: "I thoroughly enjoyed Bad Sisters and would recommend it to anyone who likes seduction, intrigue, rivalry--and murder."

Returning home to the Scottish Highlands after battling the English, Tayg Munro receives a hero’s welcome—and a shocking ultimatum. In order to take his place as heir to the chiefdom of Culrain, he must choose a wife within the month or have one chosen for him. Angered by his family's decree, Tayg delays the inevitable by volunteering for a mission for the king that takes him deep into the Highlands. Preoccupied by his marital obligation, the brooding warrior sets out with no hint of the fateful encounter that awaits him...

Catriona MacLeod is known throughout the Highlands as the Shrew of Assynt, thanks to her razor-sharp tongue and her unwillingness to yield to her five brothers. When she's told that her eldest brother has promised her hand in marriage to a man she has good reason to hate, she flees into the Scottish wilderness, determined to seek the king’s intervention in her plight. When she reluctantly joins forces with a handsome traveler, she cannot anticipate the treacherous plot that will soon embroil them—nor the passion that will ignite between them.

Stanley: Africa's Greatest Explorer by Tim Jeal from Faber and Faber Non Fiction (£1.09) is the Amazon UK Kindle Politics Daily Deal (August 17) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

Customer review: "This is a stunning book about the human will to survive and make something of life…a terrific unputdownable book."

Henry Morton Stanley was a cruel imperialist - a bad man of Africa. Or so we think: but as Tim Jeal brilliantly shows, the reality of Stanley's life is yet more extraordinary. Few people know of his dazzling trans-Africa journey, a heart-breaking epic of human endurance which solved virtually every one of the continent's remaining geographical puzzles. With new documentary evidence, Jeal explores the very nature of exploration and reappraises a reputation, in a way that is both moving and truly majestic.

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Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk: A Novel by Ben Fountain from Ecco ($1.99) is the Kindle Deal of the Day (August 19) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

* Also on Amazon CA

Product Description

Customer review: "A razor-sharp satire set in Texas during America's war in Iraq."

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and a finalist for the National Book Award; Amazon Best Books of the Month, May 2012

From the PEN/Hemingway Award-winning author of the critically acclaimed short story collection, Brief Encounters with Che Guevara, comes Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk ("The Catch-22 of the Iraq War" —Karl Marlantes).

A razor-sharp satire set in Texas during America's war in Iraq, it explores the gaping national disconnect between the war at home and the war abroad.

Ben Fountain’s remarkable debut novel follows the surviving members of the heroic Bravo Squad through one exhausting stop in their media-intensive "Victory Tour" at Texas Stadium, football mecca of the Dallas Cowboys, their fans, promoters, and cheerleaders.

Princess Charming by Beth Pattillo from Bell Bridge Books ($1.99) is the Kindle Romance Deal of the Day (August 19) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

* Also on Amazon CA

Product Description

Customer review: "I highly recommend this wildly entertaining, sweet, and hilarious twist on a classic fairy tale."

A hero’s work is never done.

Haunted by his past, Nicholas St. Germain, Crown Prince of Santadorra, has a penchant for rescuing anyone in distress—damsels as well as hapless canines. He has vowed to avoid heroism of any kind, but then Lady Lucy Charming barrels into his life, trailing trouble in her wake.

Daughter of a Duke, Lady Lucy’s life is anything but charming. Forced into drudgery by her stepmother after the Duke’s death, Lady Lucy endures her lot while plotting rebellion. She foregoes the usual balls and Society’s marriage mart, leaving those pursuits to her desperate stepsisters. Instead, Lucy continues the clandestine and often dangerous work of her late father. But to be discovered aiding the reformation efforts could mean imprisonment for Lucy. Any man who thinks to rescue her from her dedication to the cause will find himself pulling a recalcitrant Lucy from one scrape after another. And when Lucy’s passion for reform places her in jeopardy, Nick finds that a dangerously enticing wager may be the only way to save them both.

When love requires the most daring rescue of all, what’s a hero to do?

World of Warcraft: Arthas: Rise of the Lich King by Christie Golden from Pocket Books ($1.99) is the Kindle Sci-Fi / Fantasy Deal of the Day (August 19) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

* Also on Amazon CA

Product Description

Customer review: "Absolutely essential if you're a player of World of Warcraft."

The book World of Warcraft fans have been clamoring for—the true story behind one of the Warcraft universe’s most terrifying villains, Arthas the Lich King. Author Christie Golden does for Arthas what she once did for the Orc Lord Thrall in the bestselling Warcraft: Lord of the Clans, in another epic exploration of one of the key characters from the eleven-million subscriber massively multiplayer online role-playing game.

The After Girls by Leah Konen from Merit Press ($1.99) is the Kindle Teens Deal of the Day (August 19) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

* Also on Amazon CA

Product Description

Customer review: "A haunting and vivid portrayal of interrupted lives and enduring friendships."

Ella, Astrid, and Sydney were planning the perfect summer after high school graduation. But when Astrid commits suicide in a lonely cabin, the other girls' worlds are shattered. How could their best friend have done this--to herself and to them? They knew everything about Astrid. Shouldn't they have seen this coming? Couldn't they have saved her?

As Ella hunts for the truth, and Sydney tries to dull the pain, a chilling Facebook message from Astrid leaves them wondering whether their beloved friend is communicating from the after life. The girls embark on a journey to uncover Astrid's dark secrets. The answers to those questions--questions they never dreamed of asking--will change their lives forever.

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The Dark Heroine: Dinner with a Vampire by Abigail Gibbs from HarperCollins ($1.99) is the NOOK Daily Find (August 19)

Product Description

Abigail Gibbs (Autumn Rose) breathes new life into vampire romance when a chance encounter introduces Violet Lee to a hidden world -- a world of elegance, wealth, and decadence where a vampire sect exists for pleasure alone. From this world, Violet cannot escape, but in passionate surrender to the charismatic Kaspar Varn, would she want to?

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** Now Price-matched on US Amazon

The Dark Heroine: Dinner with a Vampire by Abigail Gibbs is $1.99 (Amazon US)

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97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement by Jane Ziegelman (HarperCollins) is $2.99

Book Description:

In 97 Orchard, Jane Ziegelman explores the culinary life that was the heart and soul of New York’s Lower East Side around the turn of the twentieth century — a city within a city, where Germans, Irish, Italians, and Eastern European Jews attempted to forge a new life. Through the experiences of five families, all of them residents of 97 Orchard Street, she takes readers on a vivid and unforgettable tour, from impossibly cramped tenement apartments down dimly lit stairwells where children played and neighbors socialized, beyond the front stoops where immigrant housewives found respite and company, and out into the hubbub of the dirty, teeming streets.

Ziegelman shows how immigrant cooks brought their ingenuity to the daily task of feeding their families, preserving traditions from home but always ready to improvise. While health officials worried that pushcarts were unsanitary and that pickles made immigrants too excitable to be good citizens, a culinary revolution was taking place in the streets of what had been culturally an English city. Along the East River, German immigrants founded breweries, dispensing their beloved lager in the dozens of beer gardens that opened along the Bowery. Russian Jews opened tea parlors serving blintzes and strudel next door to Romanian nightclubs that specialized in goose pastrami. On the streets, Italian peddlers hawked the cheese-and-tomato pies known as pizzarelli, while Jews sold knishes and squares of halvah. Gradually, as Americans began to explore the immigrant ghetto, they uncovered the array of comestible enticements of their foreign-born neighbors. 97 Orchard charts this exciting process of discovery as it lays bare the roots of our collective culinary heritage.

The Summer Isles by Ian R. MacLeod (Open Road Media) is $1.99

Book Description:

Winner of the World Fantasy Award and the Sidewise Award for Alternate History: A pastel-hued yet chilling alternate vision of England, The Summer Isles views the nightmare that the country has become since Germany’s victory in the Great War, through the eyes of a man whose life lies close to the heart of history

In 1918 the Allies were defeated. A closeted gay teacher, Griffin Brooke has witnessed the monumental changes his nation has undergone since being crushed by Germany’s superior fighting forces twenty-two years earlier. First came the financial collapse and crippling inflation, then the fascist uprising in the thirties that brought John Arthur to power. Now, in 1940, England has resurrected itself—but at a terrible cost. With homosexuality decreed a serious crime against the state by the dictator who was once his most avid student, Griffin has remained silent while England’s gay population has mysteriously dwindled . . . along with the nation’s Jews.

But in the twilight of his years, elevated to the role of tutor in an Oxford college, Griffin is getting anxious. Thinking back on a life lived in shadow—and on his one great love affair with a young soldier during the height of the Great War—Griffin knows that revealing a secret he has guarded for decades could have devastating consequences for Britain, the world, and especially for the fascist tyrant Arthur, who cites his former teacher as a mentor and major influence.

The Broken Land by Ian McDonald (Open Road Media) is $2.99

Book Description:

In an instant, Mathembe Fileli’s life was burned away . . . Now, in search of answers, she must traverse a divided nation

Life in the village of Chepsenyt is idyllic. Despite the empire’s growing religious tensions, the people of Chepsenyt live together peacefully and ply their trades, growing useful objects through the manipulation of DNA. It was here that Mathembe Fileli grew up, with her father creating tools used in construction and her mother spinning clothes and food.

That all changed in an instant.

The Broken Land mirrors Belfast resident Ian McDonald’s upbringing in Northern Ireland by depicting a nation cut in two by a violent religious divide. On one side are the Proclaimers, the ruling group that doesn’t believe in life after death, and on the other side are the Confessors, the opposing group whose thoughts are uploaded in the afterlife. When two Confessors take shelter in Chepsenyt, the Emperor’s soldiers burn the village to the ground, throwing the whole country into civil war. In this newly perilous world, Mathembe must draw on her resourcefulness and inner strength to find her family and bridge the nation’s gaping rift.

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The Eighth Square by Herbert Lieberman (Open Road Media) is $2.99

Book Description:

For an unsuspecting group of friends, a hike through the forest turns into a desperate fight for survival

Mr. Rogers is the ideal guide for a few neighbors looking to survey a large, wooded piece of property: He remembers every tree, stream, and bush; when there’s a fork in the road, he knows which way to go. But the surveying trip goes horribly wrong when Rogers suffers a debilitating heart attack and the group is left wandering lost through the woods, with Rogers a murmuring shadow of his former self.

Almost immediately, tensions that have existed among the friends since childhood begin to flare up. The forest grows darker and more threatening. Leadership claims are staked and rescinded. Fears start to overwhelm rational decision-making. Then Rogers starts spouting instructions in what sounds like a mystic cipher.

The Eighth Square is a rollicking psychological thriller that deftly demonstrates how thin the barrier between man and animal truly is.

Expiration Date: 2 (The Fault Lines Trilogy) by Tim Powers (Open Road Media) is $1.99

Book Description:

In the second book of the Fault Lines trilogy, Tim Powers dazzles with a dark and extraordinary urban fantasy set in an otherworldly LA, as a young boy finds himself targeted by malevolent ghost hunters

There is a Los Angeles that few people can see, a shadowed metropolis of ghosts, ghost hunters, and ghost junkies who crave the addictive rush of inhaled spirits. When eleven-year-old Koot Hoomie Parganas decides to flee the constrictive grasp of his New Age parents, he inadvertently steps into this world. Escaping with his parents’ most prized possession, Koot is soon the object of the most intense supernatural manhunt in history. On an ordinary day, Los Angeles can be treacherous; this “other” LA could prove downright fatal for an unsuspecting youngster who’s suddenly the target of every hungry ghost hunter prowling the City of Angels. But Koot will not be taken easily. And though not everyone racing to Koot’s side means him harm, they are greatly outnumbered by malevolent forces driven by a terrible, undeniable need.

Expiration Date is the second book in the Fault Line trilogy, which begins with Last Call and concludes with Earthquake Weather. At once exhilarating and terrifying, this book is a bravura display of the brilliant, bold invention that has moved bestselling author Peter Straub to declare World Fantasy and Philip K. Dick award-winner Tim Powers “one of my absolute favorite writers.”

Sinai Tapestry: 1 (The Jerusalem Quartet) by Edward Whittemore (Open Road Media) is $2.99

Book Description:

Sinai Tapestry, the brilliant first novel of the Jerusalem Quartet,is an epic alternate history of the Middle East in which the discovery of the original Bible links a disparate group of remarkable people across time and space

In 1840, Plantagenet Strongbow, the twenty-ninth Duke of Dorset, seven-feet-seven-inches tall and the greatest swordsman and botanist of Victorian England, walks away from the family estate and disappears into the Sinai Desert carrying only a large magnifying glass and a portable sundial. He emerges forty years later as an Arab holy man and anthropologist, now the author of a massive study of Levantine sex—and the secret owner of the Ottoman Empire.

Meanwhile, Skanderbeg Wallenstein has discovered the original Bible, lost on a dusty bookshelf in the monastery library. To his amazement, it defies every truth held by the three major religions. Nearly a century later, Haj Harun, an antiquities dealer who has acted as guardian of the Holy City for three thousand years, uncovers the hidden Bible.

Sinai Tapestry is the first volume of the Jerusalem Quartet, which continues with Jerusalem Poker, Nile Shadows,and Jericho Mosaic.