FREE/BARGAIN - Audiobooks - 2016

[tubemonkey]

Kindle for Samsung Whispersync Deals -- Jun 2016 --> details / archives

Introducing the Kindle reading app for Samsung. Designed exclusively for Samsung devices, with a free eBook every month and the ultimate e-reading experience. Samsung customers get a free book every month with the exclusive Samsung Book Deals. Plus, choose from a massive selection, great prices and titles exclusive to the Kindle Store.

Note: 2 of June's 4 selections qualify for WS pricing. eBook pricing will vary based on date acquired.

• $1.99 -- Sensory Deception -- Ransom Stephens/ J Cummings --> 12.9 hrs/ R-3.9 --> sci-fi
  
• $1.99 -- Sparrow Migrations -- Cari Noga/ Karen Peakes --> 9.8 hrs/ R-4.5 --> contemp

The Sensory Deception --- Whispersync: Audible ($1.99) | Kindle (free/ $4.99)

"I can’t believe I ate a seal. And really enjoyed it."

Moments after venture capitalist Gloria Baradaran experiences what it's like to be a polar bear - really be a polar bear - she knows she's found something revolutionary. Farley Rutherford and his team - migraine-tortured neurologist "Chopper" Vittori and uber-geek engineer Ringo Hayes - have created sensory saturation, a virtual reality system that drops users into the psyches of endangered animals as they fight for survival, and they believe the profound experience could turn the indifferent masses into avid environmentalists.

The Sensory Deception is a mind-blowing, globe-trotting ride that will take listeners from cutthroat Silicon Valley boardrooms to pirate ships off the Somali coast to the devastated rain forests of the Amazon, all to ask the question: What is a human life worth compared to that of an entire planet?

Sparrow Migrations --- Whispersync: Audible ($1.99) | Kindle (free/ $3.99)

An airplane plunges into an icy river and the world witnesses the dramatic rescue. Then, life after the Miracle on the Hudson landing puts three families on another crash course...with their own fragile humanity.

Airplane passenger Deborah DeWitt-Goldman knows her survival means one last chance to start the family she so badly desires - no matter the cost to her marriage. Preacher's wife Brett Stevens witnesses the event from a ferry, burdened by a secret that could destroy her family. And while twelve-year-old Robby Palmer's desperate parents struggle to reach through the fog of his autism, the boy discovers a deep connection to the birds responsible for the crash.

Now, all of them must navigate the crosscurrents of the consequences of their decisions...and when their paths collide a second time, another miracle just might happen.

Award-winning author Cari Noga's Sparrow Migrations is an inspiring, heartfelt look at the crucible of crisis and the power of human connection.

[tubemonkey]

Kindle First Whispersync Deals -- May 2016 --> details / archives

Our editors select new books each month. You can buy one featured book for $1.99 every month. Prime members enjoy one book for FREE. Books are available in advance of their official release date.

Note: Audible versions for May 2016 have been released. Four of the six qualify for WS pricing. Jun 2016 versions will be released on 01 Jul 2016. eBook pricing will vary based on date acquired.

• $1.99 -- The Butterfly Garden -- Dot Hutchison/ multiple --> 9.2 hrs/ R-4.5 --> suspense
• $1.99 -- House for Happy Mothers -- A Malladi/ D Samuel --> 9.8 hrs/ R-4.1 --> contemp
• $1.99 -- Enemy: On Bones of Gods (1/2) -- K Eason/ F Adele --> 11.6 hrs/ R-4.0 --> fantasy
• $1.99 -- We're All Damaged -- Matthew Norman/ S Merriman --> 8.4 hrs/ R-4.3 --> contemp

The Butterfly Garden --- Whispersync: Audible ($1.99) | Kindle (free/ $1.99/ $3.82)

Near an isolated mansion lies a beautiful garden.

In this garden grow luscious flowers, shady trees...and a collection of precious "butterflies" - young women who have been kidnapped and intricately tattooed to resemble their namesakes. Overseeing it all is the Gardener, a brutal, twisted man obsessed with capturing and preserving his lovely specimens.

When the garden is discovered, a survivor is brought in for questioning. FBI agents Victor Hanoverian and Brandon Eddison are tasked with piecing together one of the most stomach-churning cases of their careers. But the girl, known only as Maya, proves to be a puzzle herself.

As her story twists and turns, slowly shedding light on life in the Butterfly Garden, Maya reveals old grudges, new saviors, and horrific tales of a man who'd go to any length to hold beauty captive. But the more she shares, the more the agents have to wonder what she's still hiding....

A House for Happy Mothers --- Whispersync: Audible ($1.99) | Kindle (free/ $1.99/ $4.99)

A stunning new novel - full of wit and warmth - from the bestselling author of The Mango Season.

In trendy Silicon Valley, Priya has everything she needs - a loving husband, a career, and a home - but the one thing she wants most is the child she's unable to have. In a Southern Indian village, Asha doesn't have much - raising two children in a tiny hut, she and her husband can barely keep a tin roof over their heads - but she wants a better education for her gifted son. Pressured by her family, Asha reluctantly checks into the Happy Mothers House: a baby farm where she can rent her only asset - her womb - to a childless couple overseas. To the dismay of friends and family, Priya places her faith in a woman she's never met to make her dreams of motherhood come true.

Together, the two women discover the best and the worst that India's rising surrogacy industry has to offer, bridging continents and cultures to bring a new life into the world - and renewed hope to each other.

Enemy --> On the Bones of Gods (1 of 2)

Whispersync: Audible ($1.99) | Kindle (free/ $1.99/ $4.99)

The Illhari Republic rests on the bones of gods, telling tales of conquest and forgetting its once-bloody devotion to its most powerful goddess. Snowdenaelikk, half-blood conjuror and smuggler, cares less about history than the silver she can win with sharp metal and sharper wits. But when the local legion blames her for burning a village, an outlander with a sense of honor intervenes, and Snow finds herself tangled in politics and an unwelcome partnership.

Snow and her new partner, Veiko, together with the legion scout Dekklis, uncover a conspiracy that will destroy the Republic from within. It seems that the goddess is back from wherever dead gods go. She has not forgotten the Republic, and she wants revenge.

Loyal Dekklis will do anything to save the Republic, and Snow reluctantly agrees to help - until she realizes that "anything" means sacrificing Veiko. Now Snow must decide whether her partner's life is worth betraying her allies and damning the Republic to war.

We're All Damaged --- Whispersync: Audible ($1.99) | Kindle (free/ $1.99/ $4.99)

Andy Carter was happy. He had a solid job. He ran 5Ks for charity. He was living a nice, safe Midwestern existence. And then his wife left him for a handsome paramedic down the street.

We're All Damaged begins after Andy has lost his job, ruined his best friend's wedding, and moved to New York City, where he lives in a tiny apartment with an angry cat named Jeter that isn't technically his. But before long he needs to go back to Omaha to say good-bye to his dying grandfather.

Back home, Andy is confronted with his past, which includes his ex, his ex's new boyfriend, his right-wing talk-radio-host mother, his parents' crumbling marriage, and his still-angry best friend.

As if these old problems weren't enough, Andy encounters an entirely new complication: Daisy. She has fifteen tattoos, no job, and her own difficult past. But she claims she is the only person who can help Andy be happy again, if only she weren't hiding a huge secret that will mess things up even more. Andy Carter needs a second chance at life, and Daisy - and the person Daisy pushes Andy to become - may be his last chance to set things right.

[GtrsRGr8]

I found out that the publisher of the ebook, Edenbrooke Press, has a reputation for "clean" romances. They also appear to publish for Christians. There may be some religious references in the book, in case things like that offend you or whatever.

Title: Uncharted Redemption.
Genre: Romance (Religious/Western).
Author(s): Keely Brooke Keith.
Price: $2.98 ($0.99 ebook (marked down) + $1.99 Whispersync audio).
Regular Price of Audio, by Itself, at Audible: $17.95.
Ebook Rating/Number of Reviews: 4.6 stars/33 reviews (Amazon).
Audio Rating/Number of Ratings: 4.4/7 ratings.
Pages/Audio Length: 275/6 hours and 35 minutes.
Narrator(s): Misty of Echoing Praise.
Audible URL: http://www.audible.com/pd/Romance/Un...ok/B00UY2VR7E/.
Amazon URL (you can get the whole Whispersync deal here): https://www.amazon.com/Uncharted-Red.../dp/B00Q8NUZBW.
Comments: The ebook is Book 2 of 4 in the Uncharted series.
Book Description (Amazon):
Mandy Foster regrets her past. If anyone discovers her secret, tradition dictates she will be shunned. She’s determined to guard her heart, even if it means a lifetime alone.

Breaking from the Land’s tradition, carpenter Levi Colburn is building his house outside the village—across the road from Mandy Foster to be exact. Though he hopes to marry Mandy someday, she rejected him once and has been unattainable to every man in the village ever since. When rebels tear through Good Springs and abduct Mandy, it’s up to Levi to find her. But will she accept the tender care of the one man who truly loves her?

[tubemonkey]

Audible Daily Deal -- exp 02 Jun @ 11:59pm ET

$3.95 -- The Bone House -- Brian Freeman/ Joe Barrett --> 12.0 hrs/ R-4.1 --> mystery

The Bone House --> Cab Bolton Series (book 1 of 2)

Whispersync: Audible ($3.95) | Kindle ($7.99)

Hilary and Mark Bradley are trapped in a web of suspicion. Last year, accusations of a torrid affair with a student cost Mark his teaching job and made the young couple into outcasts in their remote island town off the Lake Michigan coast. Now another teenage girl is found dead on a deserted beach... and once again, Mark faces a hostile town convinced of his guilt.

Hilary Bradley is determined to prove that Mark is innocent, but she’s on a lonely, dangerous quest. Even when she discovers that the murdered girl was witness to a horrific crime years earlier, the police are certain she’s throwing up a smoke screen to protect her husband. Only a quirky detective named Cab Bolton seems willing to believe Hilary’s story.

Hilary and Cab soon find that people in this community are willing to kill to keep their secrets hidden - and to make sure Mark doesn’t get away with murder. And with each shocking revelation, even Hilary begins to wonder whether her husband is truly innocent.

Freeman’s first stand-alone thriller since his Stride novels is a knockout.

[tubemonkey]

Nook Daily Find -- exp 02 Jun

$3.99 -- The Residence -- Kate Brower/ Karen White --> 10.3 hrs/ R-4.0 --> history

The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House

Whispersync: no deals at this time

A remarkable history with elements of both In the President's Secret Service and The Butler, The Residence offers an intimate account of the service staff of the White House, from the Kennedys to the Obamas.

America's first families are unknowable in many ways. No one has insight into their true character like the people who serve their meals and make their beds every day. Full of stories and details by turns dramatic, humorous, and heartwarming, The Residence reveals daily life in the White House as it is really lived through the voices of the maids, butlers, cooks, florists, doormen, engineers, and others who tend to the needs of the president and first family.

These dedicated professionals maintain the six-floor mansion's 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms, 28 fireplaces, three elevators, and eight staircases and prepare everything from hors d'oeuvres for intimate gatherings to meals served at elaborate state dinners. Over the course of the day, they gather in the lower level's basement kitchen to share stories, trade secrets, forge lifelong friendships, and sometimes even fall in love.

Combining incredible first-person anecdotes from extensive interviews with scores of White House staff members - many speaking for the first time - with archival research, Kate Andersen Brower tells their story. She reveals the intimacy between the first family and the people who serve them as well as tension that has shaken the staff over the decades. From the housekeeper and engineer who fell in love while serving President Reagan to Jackie Kennedy's private moment of grief with a beloved staffer after her husband's assassination to the tumultuous days surrounding President Nixon's resignation and President Clinton's impeachment battle, The Residence is full of surprising and moving details that illuminate day-to-day life at the White House.

[tubemonkey]

SYNC Weekly Deals -- Week 5 -- exp 09 Jun @ 7am ET

Note: further info can be found here --> SYNC 2016 | SYNC FAQs

• FREE -- Boy Born Dead -- David Ring, et al/ Paul Michael --> 7.2 hrs/ R-4.8 --> memoir
• FREE -- Words in the Dust -- Trent Reed/ Ariana Delawari --> 8.5 hrs/ R-4.3 --> cultural

Note: be sure to re-download Words in the Dust. The original link only contained 6 of 7 parts. See these posts for details -- here | here -- you have until 13 Jun to do so.

The Boy Born Dead: A Story of Friendship, Courage, and Triumph

Audie Award, Faith-Based Non-Fiction, 2016

In 1953, in Jonesboro, Arkansas, a baby boy was born - dead. The attending physician set his little body aside and tended to his mother for 18 minutes. Now, more than 60 years later, that boy leads an internationally known ministry that encourages hundreds of thousands every year. The Boy Born Dead tells his incredible story from the perspective of his best friend, David Wideman.

As a teenager in the small town of Liberty, Missouri, in the late 1960s, David Ring grew up with the challenges that come with cerebral palsy, a result of his 18 minutes of newborn silence. Along with his physical limitations, Ring was orphaned and shuffled from home to home, finally landing in an abusive situation that made him feel unworthy of love and, eventually, unworthy of life. But God had a purpose for Ring's life and sent an agent to help him achieve it. Through the friendship of David Wideman, a boy he met in the halls of Liberty High School, Ring found strength he didn't know he had and went on to face his demons, marry the love of his life, and start an international speaking ministry.

Full of hope, this moving story illustrates how friendship and love triumph over adversity. Anyone who faces tough times will treasure this story of hope and courage.

Words in the Dust

Zulaikha hopes. She hopes for peace, now that the Taliban have been driven from Afghanistan; a good relationship with her hard stepmother; and one day even to go to school, or to have her cleft palate fixed. Zulaikha knows all will be provided for her "Inshallah," God willing. Then she meets Meena, who offers to teach her the Afghan poetry she taught her late mother. And the Americans come to her village, promising not just new opportunities and dangers, but surgery to fix her face. These changes could mean a whole new life for Zulaikhabut can she dare to hope they'll come true?

[tubemonkey]

Tantor -- June is Audiobook Month -- exp unknown

50% off Audio CDs and MP3 CDs
$6.99 Downloads

No idea how many downloads that includes. I'm suspecting it's their entire catalog of 5,620 titles after randomly checking prices. YMMV

[SleepyBob]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Tantor -- June is Audiobook Month -- exp unknown



No idea how many downloads that includes. I'm suspecting it's their entire catalog of 5,620 titles after randomly checking prices. YMMV

Those prices don't make sense to me:
MP3 CD $15
Download $6.99
Audio CD $3.99

Shouldn't Audio CD be the most expensive, since it requires 5 times as many CDs, and Download cheaper than getting a physical CD? Am I missing something?

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by SleepyBob

Those prices don't make sense to me:
MP3 CD $15
Download $6.99
Audio CD $3.99

Shouldn't Audio CD be the most expensive, since it requires 5 times as many CDs, and Download cheaper than getting a physical CD? Am I missing something?

Audio CDs are more expensive. The $3.99 CDs are from the Bargain Bin. Evidently they're not moving, so they slashed the price to get rid of them.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by SleepyBob

Those prices don't make sense to me:
MP3 CD $15
Download $6.99
Audio CD $3.99

Shouldn't Audio CD be the most expensive, since it requires 5 times as many CDs, and Download cheaper than getting a physical CD? Am I missing something?

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Audio CDs are more expensive. The $3.99 CDs are from the Bargain Bin. Evidently they're not moving, so they slashed the price to get rid of them.

I don't even know why audiobook CDs are still being published. At least in the numbers that they apparently are.

CDs take up space. No, one CD doesn't take up much--but how many audiobooks have you bought where even the MP3 version could fit on one CD? Or even two, or three? Then, you start talking about the CDs coming from the producer or retailer in a case (I don't think that that's the right word). Case takes space (I just made that up. ). That prompts the question of why DVDs, with their exponentially higher capacity, aren't commonly used by publishers for the longer audiobooks, at least. The thought just occurred to me that it might be because DVD players aren't as ubiquitous as CD players.

Then, to listen to an average-length book on any portable device that I'm aware of, you have to change the CDs repeatedly. IMHO, the only time that buying audiobooks on CDs is even remotely practical is when you play them at home on a system with a 5-CD changer.

Furthermore, CDs get scratched, etc., etc.

However, in some of my less sane moments (more than I'm willing to admit here), I have bought audiobooks on CD. Why? For reasons connected with the posts above--sometimes they are much less expensive than the digital (truly digital--no physical product at all is involved) versions. The demons of my frugal nature win over my common sense. When I give in and buy the CDs, I imagine myself eliminating the CDs by ripping them to the hard drive or somewhere else. But I've never managed to find the time actually to do that.

[ApK]

Probably because a lot of old audio-only CD players are still in service, notably in cars.

I expect they'll dwindle to bargain-bin-only or niche levels soon enough, as the cassettes have.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

I don't even know why audiobook CDs are still being published. At least in the numbers that they apparently are.

They're a dying breed. I certainly wouldn't buy any CDs; but if I were to put some of my audiobooks to disc, it would be DVD: 0.7GB vs 4.7GB.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

They're a dying breed. I certainly wouldn't buy any CDs; but if I were to put some of my audiobooks to disc, it would be DVD: 0.7GB vs 4.7GB.

I'd probably make MP3 CDs, just because I have several stacks in the closet and little else to do with them.
700MB is still a lot of mp3 audibook content.
If I actually had to make audio CDs of a book, say for my mom, I would dread the experience. I did back in the old Audible days when burn-to-cd was one of few options for portability. It was painful.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

They're a dying breed. I certainly wouldn't buy any CDs; but if I were to put some of my audiobooks to disc, it would be DVD: 0.7GB vs 4.7GB.

Nearly 7 times as much. That means that there would be the need for only one DVD instead of 6 or 7 CDs. Many audiobooks would fit on a single DVD, then.

Double-layer DVDs apparently never caught on for any application--music, audiobook, or movie, unfortunately. One double-layer DVD would hold most audiobooks.

Neither have blu-rays caught on for audiobook applications. If I'm not mistaken, they have much more capacity than even double-layer DVDs. I guess the new purple disc thingies, still more capacity.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

Double-layer DVDs apparently never caught on for any application--music, audiobook, or movie, unfortunately. One double-layer DVD would hold most audiobooks.

Double layer DVDs are the standard for commercial movies.
Less popular for home-recording, but they do have (or had) a following among home video buffs.

As for Blurays discs (25 GB per layer), they were eclipsed by other forms of storage and streaming for everything but commercial movie distribution (mostly, anyway).
I am surprised there even is a 4K Bluray standard being sold, and that discs will be coming in higher capacities.
I'd have bet that Bluray was going to be the last form of physical distribution we were going to see at any mass market scale, to be totally replaced by streaming and solid state storage.

ApK