Content FREE (and bargain) books for the Kindle - December 2010

[koland]

Today's $2.99 Kindle Deal and $0.99 Student Deal books:

Airhead by Meg Cobot
Dead Is the New Black by Marlene Perez
Empowered: Unleash Your Employees, Energize Your Customers, and Transform Your Business by Josh Bernoff and Ted Schadler
Essential Meditations Deck by Chronicle Books
Farewell Innings: Final Games at Thirteen Classic Ballparks by David M. Jordan
Fortune Telling Book of Dreams by A.M. McCloud
Glimpses of Heaven: True Stories of Hope and Peace at the End of Life's Journey by Trudy Harris
Healthy Back Deck by Beverly Biondi
Killer On A Hot Tin Roof by Livia J Washburn
Miss Clare Remembers and Emily Davis (The Fairacre Series 4 & 8) by Miss Read
Permission to Speak Freely by Anne Jackson
Skipped Parts by Tim Sandlin
Fairy Tales Reimagined: Essays on New Retellings by Susan Redington Bobby and Kate Bernheimer
Small Ball in the Big Leagues: A History of Stealing, Bunting, Walking and Otherwise Scratching for Runs by James D. Szalontai
The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite by David Kessler
The New Evolution Diet by Arthur De Vany PhD.
The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World's Toughest Problems by Richard Pascale, Jerry Sternin, and Monique Sternin
WCS Pocket Guide: Cats by Ben Winters
The Art of Styling Sentences by K.D. Sullivan ($0.99)

Left over Kindle Daily Deal book, still $2.99
The South Beach Diet Supercharged: Faster Weight Loss and Better Health for Life by Joseph Signorile PhD (Tues book)

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Bargain book (historical fiction):

Johnny One-Eye: A Tale of the American Revolution by Jerome Charyn is $1.40 for the Kindle. (The ebook is $13.46 at Sony & $15.09 at Kobo)

Product Description
Johnny One-Eye is bringing about the rediscovery of one of the most "singular and remarkable [careers] in American literature" (Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World).

In this picaresque tour de force that reanimates Revolutionary Manhattan through the story of double agent John Stocking, the bastard son of a whorehouse madam and possibly George Washington, Jerome Charyn has given us one of the most memorable historical novels in years. As Johnny seeks to unlock the mystery of his birth and grapples with his allegiances, he falls in love with Clara, a gorgeous, green-eyed octoroon, the most coveted harlot of Gertrude's house. The wild parade of characters he encounters includes Benedict Arnold, the Howe brothers, "Sir Billy" and "Black Dick," and a manipulative Alexander Hamilton.

Not since John Barth's The Sotweed Factor and Gore Vidal's Burr has a novel so dramatically re-created America's historical beginnings. Reading group guide included.

About the Author
Jerome Charyn has been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and has received the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His novels include Johnny One-Eye and The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson. He lives in Paris and New York.

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Bargain book (historical fiction):

The Ruby in Her Navel: A Novel of Love and Intrigue in the 12th Century by Barry Unsworth is just $1.66 for the Kindle. (The ebook is $14.30 at Sony and $15.09 at Kobo)

Product Description

Set in the Middle Ages during the brief yet glittering rule of the Norman kings, The Ruby in Her Navel is a tale in which the conflicts of the past portend the present. The novel opens in Palermo, in which Latin and Greek, Arab and Jew live together in precarious harmony. Thurstan Beauchamp, the Christian son of a Norman knight, works for Yusuf, a Muslim Arab, in the palace’s central finance office, a job which includes the management of blackmail and bribes, and the gathering of secret information for the king.

But the peace and prosperity of the kingdom is being threatened, internally as well as externally. Known for his loyalty but divided between the ideals of chivalry and the harsh political realities of his tumultuous times, Thurstan is dispatched to uncover the conspiracies brewing against his king. During his journeys, he encounters the woman he loved as a youth; and the renewed promise of her love, as well as the mysterious presence of an itinerant dancing girl, sends him on a spiritual odyssey that forces him to question the nature of his ambition and the folly of uncritical reverence for authority.

With the exquisite prose and masterful narrative drive that have earned him widespread acclaim, Barry Unsworth transports the reader to a distant past filled with deception and mystery, and whose racial, tribal, and religious tensions are still with us today.

About the Author
BARRY UNSWORTH won the Booker Prize for his novel Sacred Hunger. He is also the author of The Songs of the Kings, Losing Nelson, After Hannibal, and the international bestseller Morality Play. He lives in Italy.

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Bargain book (Paranormal chicklit):

Heather Webber's Truly, Madly (Lucy Valentine Series #1) is discounted to $2.99 (from $7.99) for the Kindle.

Product Description

Lucy Valentine is as smart as can be, as single as you can get, and so not qualified to run a matchmaking service. But when her parents temporarily step down from the family business, Valentine, Inc., it’s Lucy’s turn to step up and help out—in the name of love.

Plus, her rent is due.

Here’s the problem: Lucy doesn’t have the knack for matchmaking. According to family legend, every Valentine has been blessed by Cupid with the ability to read “auras” and pair up perfect couples. But not Lucy. Her skills were zapped away years ago in an electrical surge, and now all she can do is find lost objects. What good is that in the matchmaking world? You’d be surprised. In a city like Boston, everyone’s looking for something. So when Lucy locates a missing wedding ring—on a dead body—she asks the sexy private eye who lives upstairs to help her solve the perfect crime. And who knows? Maybe she’ll find the perfect love while she’s at it…

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FYI, this bargain is only for Kindle readers in Canada:

Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things is just $0.99 for the Kindle (Canada region).

Product Description:

A mysterious circus terrifies an audience for one extraordinary performance before disappearing into the night, taking one of the spectators along with it . . .

In a novella set two years after the events of American Gods, Shadow pays a visit to an ancient Scottish mansion, and finds himself trapped in a game of murder and monsters . . .

In a Hugo Award-winning short story set in a strangely altered Victorian England, the great detective Sherlock Holmes must solve a most unsettling royal murder . . .

Two teenage boys crash a party and meet the girls of their dreams—and nightmares . . .

In a Locus Award-winning tale, the members of an excusive epicurean club lament that they've eaten everything that can be eaten, with the exception of a legendary, rare, and exceedingly dangerous Egyptian bird . . .

Such marvelous creations and more—including a short story set in the world of The Matrix, and others set in the worlds of gothic fiction and children's fiction—can be found in this extraordinary collection, which showcases Gaiman's storytelling brilliance as well as his terrifyingly entertaining dark sense of humor. By turns delightful, disturbing, and diverting, Fragile Things is a gift of literary enchantment from one of the most unique writers of our time.

About the Author
Neil Gaiman is the critically acclaimed and award-winning creator of the Sandman series of graphic novels, author of the novels Anansi Boys, American Gods, Coraline, Stardust, and Neverwhere, the short-fiction collection Smoke and Mirrors, and the bestselling children's books The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish and The Wolves in the Walls (both illustrated by Dave McKean). Originally from England, Gaiman now lives in the United States.

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FYI, this bargain is only for Kindle readers in Canada:

Sidney Sheldon's Rage of Angels is just $0.99 for the Kindle (Canada region).

Product Description:

A worldwide bestseller first published in 1980, this novel tells the story of Jennifer Parker, a successful lawyer who is loved by two men, one a politician, the other, a mafia don.

A memorable, mesmerizing heroine

Jennifer -- brilliant, beautiful, an attorney on the way up until the Mafia's schemes win her the hatred of an implacable enemy -- and a love more destructive than hate.

A dangerous, dramatic world

The Dark Arena of organized crime and flashbulb lit courtrooms where ambitious prosecutors begin their climb to political power.

[koland]

Free on Kindle for UK customers only.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel (UK Link)

This title is the winner of The 2002 Booker Prize. After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, one solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific. The crew of the surviving vessel consists of a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan, a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger and Pi - a 16-year-old Indian boy. The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary pieces of literary fiction of recent years.

[ProfCrash]

Originally Posted by koland

Free on Kindle for UK customers only.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel (UK Link)

This title is the winner of The 2002 Booker Prize. After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, one solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific. The crew of the surviving vessel consists of a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan, a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger and Pi - a 16-year-old Indian boy. The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary pieces of literary fiction of recent years.

OK now I am jealous

[koland]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

OK now I am jealous

Me too. And I have a paper copy on my shelf (but I don't like reading paper, anymore). Time to dust it off, it appears.

[lunixer]

Originally Posted by koland

Me too. And I have a paper copy on my shelf (but I don't like reading paper, anymore). Time to dust it off, it appears.

It was overrated. Don't be too jealous.

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by lunixer

It was overrated. Don't be too jealous.

I loved it. I have weird tastes, though.

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FYI, only free for UK Kindle readers:

Two Rivers by T. Greenwood (Amazon Main, Amazon UK)

Product Description
T. Greenwood's new novel is a powerful, haunting tale of enduring love, destructive secrets, and opportunities that arrive in disguise . . .

In Two Rivers, Vermont, Harper Montgomery is living a life overshadowed by grief and guilt. Since the death of his wife, Betsy, twelve years earlier, Harper has narrowed his world to working at the local railroad and raising his daughter, Shelly, the best way he knows how. Still wracked with sorrow over the loss of his life-long love and plagued by his role in a brutal, long-ago crime, he wants only to make amends for his past mistakes.

Then one fall day, a train derails in Two Rivers, and amid the wreckage Harper finds an unexpected chance at atonement. One of the survivors, a pregnant fifteen-year-old girl with mismatched eyes and skin the color of blackberries, needs a place to stay. Though filled with misgivings, Harper offers to take Maggie in. But it isn't long before he begins to suspect that Maggie's appearance in Two Rivers is not the simple case of happenstance it first appeared to be.

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FYI, only free for UK Kindle readers:

Mistress By Mistake by Maggie Robinson (Amazon Main, Amazon UK)

Product Description
Scandal Is Only The Beginning. . .

Charlotte Fallon let her guarded virtue fall once--and she's paid dearly for it ever since. She swore she'd never succumb to men's desires again. But even a village spinster's life miles from temptation can't save her from a sister with no shame whatsoever. Or a heart that longs for more, whatever the cost. . .

Sir Michael Bayard found more than he expected in his bed when he finally joined his new mistress. He'd fantasized about her dewy skin and luscious curves, assured her understanding that what passed between them was mere dalliance. But he didn't expect the innocence and heat of her response in his arms. Nor her surprisingly sharp tongue once she was out of them. . .

A few days of abandon cannot undo the hard-learned lessons of a lifetime. Nor can an honest passion burn away the restraints of society's judgments. Unless, of course, one believes in nonsense like true love. . .

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FYI, only free for UK Kindle readers:

Hunted By The Others by Jess Haines (Amazon Main, Amazon UK)

Product Description
They are the Others--the vampires, mages, and werewolves once thought to exist only in our imaginations. Now they're stepping out of the shadows, and nothing in our world will ever be the same again. . .

In A Town Like This, Being A P.I. Can Be Murder

Shiarra Waynest's detective work was dangerous enough when her client base was strictly mortal. But ailing finances have forced her to accept a lucrative case that could save her firm--if it doesn't kill her first. Shiarra has signed on to work for a high-level mage to recover an ancient artifact owned by one of New York's most powerful vampires.

As soon as Shiarra meets sexy, mesmerizing vamp Alec Royce, she knows her assignment is even more complicated than she thought. With a clandestine anti-Other group trying to recruit her, and magi being eliminated, Shiarra needs back-up and enlists her ex-boyfriend--a werewolf whose non-furry form is disarmingly appealing--and a nerdy mage with surprising talents. But it may not be enough. In a city where the undead roam, magic rules, and even the Others aren't always what they seem, Shiarra has just become the secret weapon in a battle between good and evil--whether she likes it or not. . .

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FYI, only free for UK Kindle readers:

The Queen's Dollmaker by Christine Trent (Amazon Main, Amazon UK)

Product Description
On the brink of revolution, with a tide of hate turned against the decadent royal court, France is in turmoil--as is the life of one young woman forced to leave her beloved Paris. After a fire destroys her home and family, Claudette Laurent is struggling to survive in London. But one precious gift remains: her talent for creating exquisite dolls that Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France herself, cherishes. When the Queen requests a meeting, Claudette seizes the opportunity to promote her business, and to return home. . .

Amid the violence and unrest, Claudette befriends the Queen, who bears no resemblance to the figurehead rapidly becoming the scapegoat of the Revolution. But when Claudette herself is lured into a web of deadly political intrigue, it becomes clear that friendship with France's most despised woman has grim consequences. Now, overshadowed by the specter of Madame Guillotine, the Queen's dollmaker will face the ultimate test.

Infused with the passion and excitement of a country--and an unforgettable heroine--on the threshold of radical change, this captivating novel propels readers into a beguiling world of opulence, adventure, and danger, from the rough streets of eighteenth-century London to France's lavish Palace of Versailles.