Affiliate Links for "arcadata"- June 2012

[arcadata]

Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time by Michael Shermer from Holt Paperbacks is $2.99 (US Kindle)

Book Description

Revised and Expanded Edition.

In this age of supposed scientific enlightenment, many people still believe in mind reading, past-life regression theory, New Age hokum, and alien abduction. A no-holds-barred assault on popular superstitions and prejudices, with more than 80,000 copies in print, Why People Believe Weird Things debunks these nonsensical claims and explores the very human reasons people find otherworldly phenomena, conspiracy theories, and cults so appealing. In an entirely new chapter, "Why Smart People Believe in Weird Things," Michael Shermer takes on science luminaries like physicist Frank Tippler and others, who hide their spiritual beliefs behind the trappings of science.

Shermer, science historian and true crusader, also reveals the more dangerous side of such illogical thinking, including Holocaust denial, the recovered-memory movement, the satanic ritual abuse scare, and other modern crazes. Why People Believe Strange Things is an eye-opening resource for the most gullible among us and those who want to protect them.

[odiakkoh]

Originally Posted by arcadata

Thanks for letting me know, I've corrected it

Thanks I couldn't help myself but buy it for my son even though I have pretty much all the books as a pbook lol.

[arcadata]

The Comfort of Apples: Modern Recipes for an Old-Fashioned Favorite by Philip Rubin and Lauren Rubin from Lyons Press is $3.95 (US Kindle)

Product Description:

The idea for The Comfort of Apples came to chefs Philip and Lauren Rubin when, after an afternoon spent picking apples at a local orchard, they looked at each other and wondered, “What do we do with them?”

With the abundance of apples filling farmer’s markets, supermarket produce sections, and orchards every fall, it is a rare soul who doesn’t wind up with a veritable bounty of apple varieties filling their larder for at least several months out of the year. And yet many cooks don’t realize that apples have infinite cooking applications beyond sauces, crisps, and pies. As this beautifully illustrated book shows, they can be julienned raw in a salad; poached whole in wine; used in the form of cider as a deglazing or braising liquid; fermented into warm drinks; or juiced and turned into sorbet. The list goes on.

Excited by the many uses for the humble apple, the authors here share nearly one hundred original recipes that will take the home cook beyond the basics—recipes for breakfast, appetizers, entrees, and desserts. In addition, they suggest the best apples for certain recipes, including many unconventional varieties that are showing up at greenmarkets and farm stands across North America.

Some of the mouthwatering recipes include Poached Eggs and Apple Butter; Crostini with Clams, Bacon, and Apples; Oysters with Apple and Lime Granite; Crisp Pork Belly with Lentils and Applesauce; Gnocchi with Cauliflower, Peas, and Apples; and Applesauce Spice Cake with Penuche Icing.

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Prophet’s Daughter: My Life with Elizabeth Clare Prophet Inside the Church Universal and Triumphant by Erin Prophet from Lyons Press is $2.28 (US Kindle)

Product Description:

For the first time, the truth about what went on inside a secretive sect during an event that gripped the nation—by the daughter and onetime heir apparent of its founder.

In early 1990, in response to the apocalyptic prophecies of her mother, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Erin Prophet entered a network of underground bunkers in Montana along with members of her mother’s Church Universal and Triumphant, a controversial New Age sect much of America had branded a “cult.” Emerging to find the world intact, Erin was forced into a radical reassessment of everything she knew, or thought she knew, about love, life, and obligations to church and family. She had spent her adolescence watching her mother vilified as a dangerous cult leader even while attempting to meet her mother’s expectations by becoming a “prophet” herself.

In Prophet’s Daughter, the onetime heir apparent of the woman known to tens of thousands of followers as “Guru Ma” provides a fiercely honest account of her struggle to understand a mother who was both loved and hated. Even to her family, Elizabeth Clare Prophet projected an aura of infallibility and held her closest followers to a rigid moral code. With the craft of a storyteller, Erin shows how she first dismissed, then entertained, rumors of her mother’s sexual hypocrisy, and suggests that the strain of maintaining a façade of perfection fueled her mother’s departure from reality.

The taut narrative hangs on an intense combination of health crises and external pressures that drove Guru Ma’s increasingly dire prophecies. Throughout the book, Erin also candidly recounts her own journey, the dwindling of her belief, and the turmoil of witnessing her beloved mother’s decline. In a moving conclusion, she describes her efforts to combat the subtle corruption brought on by Guru Ma’s power and increasing isolation, only to be thwarted by the onset of her mother’s Alzheimer’s disease.

A remarkable memoir, Prophet’s Daughter affords a rare look inside the workings of a secretive sect that once held a nation’s attention and still exists today. And it makes a powerful contribution to ongoing public debates about power, group behavior, and the future of religion.

[arcadata]

Shoulder Bags and Shootings (Haley Randolph Mysteries) by Dorothy Howell from Kensington Books is $2.99 (US Kindle)

Product Description:

Life is almost perfect for fashionista and amateur sleuth Haley Randolph. She just vacationed in Europe with her boyfriend Ty Cameron, owner of Holt’s Department Store. And now Ty’s grandmother is letting Haley drive her Mercedes. If only Haley could get her hands on the new Sinful handbag. It’s totally out of stock, and Haley would rather die than buy a knockoff. But when she finds the body of her designer purse party rival, Tiffany Markham, in the trunk of the Mercedes, she’s not so sure she wants to trade places after all. . .

Topping the list of suspects, Haley doesn’t deny seeing red when Tiffany stole her purse party idea–and made more money. But she wasn’t jealous enough to commit murder. Now she’ll have to solve this mystery quickly–and find that Sinful bag–before she becomes a killer’s next fashion fatality. . .

[arcadata]

FYI, NOOK Summer Weekend Reads offer is THE GATHERING by Anne Enright from Grove Press for $3.99!

Overview

Winner of the 2007 Man Booker Prize for Fiction

Anne Enright is a dazzling writer of international stature and one of Ireland’s most singular voices. Now she delivers The Gathering, a moving, evocative portrait of a large Irish family and a shot of fresh blood into the Irish literary tradition, combining the lyricism of the old with the shock of the new. The nine surviving children of the Hegarty clan are gathering in Dublin for the wake of their wayward brother, Liam, drowned in the sea. His sister, Veronica, collects the body and keeps the dead man company, guarding the secret she shares with him—something that happened in their grandmother’s house in the winter of 1968. As Enright traces the line of betrayal and redemption through three generations her distinctive intelligence twists the world a fraction and gives it back to us in a new and unforgettable light. The Gathering is a daring, witty, and insightful family epic, clarified through Anne Enright’s unblinking eye. It is a novel about love and disappointment, about how memories warp and secrets fester, and how fate is written in the body, not in the stars.

[arcadata]

Black Tide: A Jack Irish Thriller by Peter Temple from Robinson (£0.99) is the Amazon UK Kindle Deal of the Day (June 23) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

Jack Irish is still recovering from a foray into the criminal underworld when he gets a call from Des Connors, the last living link to Jack's father. Connors' son has gone missing, and Jack agrees to find him. The trail leads Jack to millionaire Steven Levesque, a man harboring a deep and deadly secret.

No Mercy (Dark-Hunters #14) by Sherrilyn Kenyon from St. Martin's Press ($2.99) is the NOOK Daily Find (June 23)

* Amazon also has No Mercy at $2.99

Product Description

Join the adventure with Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter Samia and the handsome shapeshifter Dev Peltier standing at her side as the two protect New Orleans from unimagineable evil.

The Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 3) by Rick Riordan from Disney Book Group ($1.99) is the NOOK Daily Find for Families (June 23)

Product Description

In the third installment of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, the goddess Artemis has gone missing. With Artemis gone and believed kidnapped it is up to Percy and his friends to get to the bottom of the mystery. Working against the clock, they must find her before the Winter Solstice when an important vote is to come before the Olympian council that could cause a war between the Gods and Titans.

A Small Fortune by Audrey Braun from AmazonEncore ($0.99) is the Kindle Deal of the Day (June 23) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

When Celia Donnelly’s husband, Jonathon, surprises her with a family vacation to Mexico, the harried book editor couldn't be happier. She is overworked and exhausted, a situation that has taken a toll on her eighteen-year marriage, not to mention her relationship with her teenaged son. Escaping the perpetually rainy Pacific Northwest for the sugary sands of Mexico could be just what the doctor ordered. Yet shortly after their arrival south of the border, a chance encounter with a stranger sparks illicit memories of a former affair. The moment passes, but that brief encounter proves enough to change her life forever. Hours later, Celia is lured from the beach and abducted off the street. At first a seemingly random victim, Celia quickly realizes her captors know exactly who she is. Desperate for news of her family and devastated by the betrayal of someone she trusts, Celia, along with an unlikely ally, is soon running for her life. Pursued from the balmy shores of Mexico to the steamy thickets of the jungle, to the crisp, cold mountains of Zurich, Celia will stop at nothing to find her way home.

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Little Girl Lost by Brian McGilloway from Macmillan (£0.99) is the Amazon UK Kindle Deal of the Day (June 24) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

Little Girl Lost is a devastating page-turner about corruption, greed and vengeance, and a father's love for his daughter. During a winter blizzard a small girl is found wandering half-naked at the edge of an ancient woodland. Her hands are covered in blood, but it is not her own.

Cleopatra and Antony: Power, Love, and Politics in the Ancient World by Diana Preston from Walker Books ($3.99) is the NOOK Daily Find (June 24)

Product Description

In this stirring history more compelling than any romance novel, Diana Preston distlls the mythology surrounding Cleopatra and Mark Anthony to reveal the true passion, curiosity, and intrigue of both their personal lives and the global empires under their sway.

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo from Candlewick Press ($2.99) is the NOOK Daily Find for Families (June 24)

Product Description

One summer day, Opal goes into a supermarket and comes out with a scraggly dog that she names Winn-Dixie. Because of Winn-Dixie, her preacher father finally tells her ten things about her absentee mother, and Opal makes lots of unusual friends in her quirky Florida town. And because of Winn-Dixie, Opal grows to learn that friendship - and forgiveness - can sneak up on you like a sudden storm.

In the Courts of the Sun by Audrey Braun from NAL/Penguin ($2.99) is the Kindle Deal of the Day (June 24) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

The year is 2012, and math prodigy Jed DeLanda is enlisted to decipher an ancient Mayan codex containing the secrets of the Sacrifice Game. It foretells the end of civilization, and only Jed can prevent the apocalypse by playing the game, which takes him on a mind-bending journey across time.

[arcadata]

FYI, NOOK Summer Weekend Reads offer is now price-matched on Amazon:

THE GATHERING by Anne Enright for $3.99!

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The Trinity Six by Charles Cumming from St. Martin's Press is $2.99 (US Kindle)

Book Description

A Washington Post Notable Fiction Book for 2011 and a Kirkus Reviews Best of 2011 Thrillers title.

The most closely-guarded secret of the Cold War is about to be exposed – the identity of a SIXTH member of the infamous Cambridge spy ring. And people are killing for it…

London, 1992. Late one night, Edward Crane, 76, is declared dead at a London hospital. An obituary describes him only as a 'resourceful career diplomat'. But Crane was much more than that – and the circumstances surrounding his death are far from what they seem.

Fifteen years later, academic Sam Gaddis needs money. When a journalist friend asks for his help researching a possible sixth member of the notorious Trinity spy ring, Gaddis knows that she's onto a story that could turn his fortunes around. But within hours the journalist is dead, apparently from a heart attack.

Taking over her investigation, Gaddis trails a man who claims to know the truth about Edward Crane. Europe still echoes with decades of deadly disinformation on both sides of the Iron Curtain. And as Gaddis follows a series of leads across the continent, he approaches a shocking revelation – one which will rock the foundations of politics from London to Moscow…

“Cumming's novel is characterized by a gripping sense of realism. He displays a vast knowledge of spycraft and Cold War history, and the dense, three-dimensional world he crafts comes complete with seedy hotels and smoky nightclubs. The result is absolutely gripping. Taut, atmospheric and immersive—an instant classic.” – Kirkus Reviews (starred review) on The Trinity Six

[arcadata]

Group of Death by C.M. Taylor from Corsair (£0.99) is the Amazon UK Kindle Deal of the Day (June 25) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

England football Captain Kev King takes no prisoners - on and off the pitch. In this blistering sequel to Premiership Psycho King is fighting for his place at Euro 2012. But can he keep his secrets hidden and his temper in check long enough to reach the finals?

The Sweet By and By by Sara Evans from Thomas Nelson ($3.40) is the NOOK Daily Find (June 25)

Product Description

As a grown woman, Jade Freedom Fitzgerald has set aside the traumas of her erratic childhood. But with her wedding coming, she knows that now's the time to reconcile with her flighty mother and estranged sister. Will seeing them again bring her the closure she wants or open up new wounds?

Ariel: The Birthday Surprise (Disney Princess Early Chapter Books) by Disney Press ($1.99) is the NOOK Daily Find for Families (June 25)

FYI, Amazon has matched this Nook deal: Ariel: The Birthday Surprise also $1.991

Product Description

Ariel's sister Aquata is having a birthday celebration. It's going to be a fun-filled day, complete with a special concert, and Ariel is excited about visiting her family. If only Prince Eric could go under the sea, too. At the party, Aquata wishes that Ariel could stay with them forever. At that very moment, a rare solar eclipse hits, and the wish comes true! Will Ariel ever be able to break the spell and return to Eric-and her life as a human?

The Test by Patricia Gussin from Oceanview Publishing ($0.99) is the Kindle Deal of the Day (June 25) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

Determined to leave more than money to his six children, billionaire Paul Parnell created a will that gives the lion's share of his estate to his heirs who pass a year-long morality test. The process forces Paul's very different children to face their personal demons and one incredibly evil influence.

[arcadata]

Amazon Price match for the Nook deals yesterday:

Cleopatra and Antony: Power, Love, and Politics in the Ancient World also $3.99

Because of Winn-Dixie also $2.99

[arcadata]

FYI, another Nook deal price match:

The Sweet By and By by Sara Evans also $3.40 for US Kindle

[arcadata]

Ritual: A Novel by Mo Hayder from Atlantic Monthly Press is $2.99 (US Kindle)

Book Description

Mo Hayder's previous novels The Devil of Nanking and The Treatment have ranked her among the most exciting and provocative thriller writers now working. In her latest, Ritual, Hayder gives us a taut, chilling tale of clandestine occult practices, New Age medicine, and the drug underground, set in a hypermodern urban landscape challenged by colliding immigrant cultures.

Just after lunch on a Tuesday in April, nine feet under water, police diver Flea Marley closes her gloved fingers around a human hand. The fact that there's no body attached is disturbing enough. Even more disturbing is the discovery, a day later, of the matching hand. Both have been recently amputated, and the indications are that the victim was still alive when they were removed. DI Jack Caffery has been newly seconded to the Major Crime Investigation Unit in Bristol. He and Flea soon establish that the hand belong to a young man who has recently disappeared. Their search for him—and for his abductor—lead them into the darkest recesses of Bristol's underworld, where drug addiction is rife, where street-kids sell themselves for a hit, and where one of Africa's most disturbing rituals may be making an unexpected appearance.

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The Second Perimeter: A Joe DeMarco Thriller by Mike Lawson from Grove Press is $1.99 (US Kindle)

Book Description

Mike Lawson’s thrillers featuring Joe DeMarco, fixer for John Fitzpatrick Mahoney, the hard-drinking, glad-handing, womanizing speaker of the House, have won him a dedicated following of readers and lots of critical praise. His last two books, House Secrets, and House Justice have increased his readership, with strong reviews (including Marilyn Stasio in the New York Times), several "best of" list mentions, and award nominations.

Originally published by Doubleday in 2006, The Second Perimter was the second novel featuring Joe DeMarco, an average guy frequently tossed into deep waters. Lawson had a thirty-year career in the Navy as a senior civilian. He was a nuclear engineer responsible for their nuclear power program on the west coast. He's smart, and knows first hand how government works (and doesn't), and how power plays out in real life.

More than any book in this series, The Second Perimeter draws on Lawson's background. In The Second Perimeter, when the Secretary of the Navy’s nephew tells him that two colleagues at a U.S. Naval base are committing fraud, he is skeptical. Reluctant to launch an official investigation based on a relative’s vague suspicions, the Secretary asks Mahoney to send his guy DeMarco to check out the story.

As DeMarco and his friend Emma, a semi-retired intelligence agent, begin to investigate what they thought was a low-stakes government swindle, they come to the terrifying realization that an espionage ring has infiltrated the naval base. The leader of the espionage ring is a woman with whom Emma has a history dating back to the Cold War. Their encounter destroyed the other woman’s once promising career and turned her into a ruthless operative who cares about only one thing: destroying Emma. DeMarco has never been near a spy in his life - at least not that he ever knew of – but now he’s mixed up in a deadly conflict with a foreign agent more lethal than anyone he’s ever encountered. Not only is Emma’s life in danger, but Mahoney’s as well.

Lawson has written one excellent novel after another over the past few years. Grove/Atlantic is publishing his new hardcover, House Divided, in the summer of 2011, and it has been getting great advance reviews, including starred reviews from Booklist and PW. With two novels under contract beyond House Divided, the series has legs, and will keep leading readers to the fantastic books where it all started.