Content FREE (and bargain) books for the Kindle - January 2011

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Hollywood Nobody (Hollywood Nobody Series, Book 1) by Lisa Samson

Product Description
Fifteen-year-old Scotty Dawn has spent her young life on the road, traveling to movie sets with her single mom, Charley, a food designer. Yet even though Scotty is wise beyond her years, she still struggles to find her identity. Complicating matters is a mother who offers no guidance and a father she's never met.

Now Scotty is determined to discover what she wants from life. She's even documenting the journey on her "Hollywood Nobody" blog. But as Scotty begins to find dark answers to tough questions, will her story have a happy ending?

The first in a series, Hollywood Nobody is a novel for teen girls that examines real issues with honesty and humor. Enhancing the book's themes, the story includes journal and blog entries as well as screenplay dialog, providing an engaging experience for readers.

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Summer at Willow Lake by Susan Wiggs

Product Description

Real estate expert Olivia Bellamy reluctantly trades a trendy Manhattan summer for her family's old resort camp in the Catskills, where her primary task will be renovating the bungalow colongy for her grandparents, who want one last summer together filled with fun, friends and family. A posh resort in its heyday, the camp is now in disarray and Olivia is forced to hire contractor Connor Davis--a still-smoldering flame from her own summers at camp.

But as the days grow warm, not even the inviting blue waters of Willow Lake can cool the passions flaring or keep shocking secrets at bay. The nostalgic joy of summers past breathes new promise into a special place and people...a promise meant to last long after the season ends.

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These four nonfiction books by FT Press are marked to become free later today, but since FT Press is slow to do that, just make sure to check before clicking buy:

Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy by Dev Patnaik

Product Description:

Blurring the Line Between Inside and Out

What’s the critical difference between Nike and every other shoe company on the planet? Why do some airline executives continue to insist that air travel is great, when we all know better? What has enabled Zildjian, a family business founded outside Istanbul, to thrive for almost 400 years?

In this essential and illuminating book, top business strategist Dev Patnaik tells the story of how organizations of all kinds prosper when they tap into a power each of us already has: empathy, the ability to reach outside of ourselves and connect with other people. When people inside a company develop a shared sense of what’s going on in the world, they see new opportunities faster than their competitors. They have the courage to take a risk on something new. And they have the gut-level certitude to stick with an idea that doesn’t take off right away. People are "Wired to Care," and many of the world’s best organizations are, too.

In pursuit of this idea, Patnaik takes readers inside big companies like IBM, Target, and Intel to see widespread empathy in action. But he also goes to farmers' markets and a conference on world religions. He dives deep into the catacombs of the human brain to find the biological sources of empathy. And he spends time on both sides of the political aisle, with James Carville, the Ragin’ Cajun, and John McCain, a national hero, to show how empathy can give you the acuity to cut through a morass of contradictory information.

Wired to Care is a compelling tale of the power that people have to see the world through each other’s eyes, told with passion for the possibilities that lie ahead if leaders learn to stop worrying about their own problems and start caring about the world around them. As Patnaik notes, in addition to its considerable economic benefits, increasing empathy for the people you serve can have a personal impact, as well: It just might help you to have a better day at work.

Chips, Clones, and Living Beyond 100: How Far Will the Biosciences Take Us? by Joyce A. Schoemaker and Paul J. H. Schoemaker

Product Description:

The key scientific discoveries of the 21st century are coming from the biosciences. These discoveries will impact our lives in ways we can only begin to imagine. Now, two leading experts will help you imagine those impacts--and prepare for them. Paul and Joyce Schoemaker preview the research innovations most likely to emerge in the coming years and reveal what they’re likely to mean for everything from human longevity to the health of society, from bioterrorism to personalized medicine.

Writing for every interested citizen and consumer, the Schoemakers illuminate the hottest technologies and most controversial issues associated with contemporary biotechnology--including stem cells, cloning, pharmacogenetics, DNA chips, proteomics, gene therapy, and much more. Then, drawing on Paul Schoemaker’s unsurpassed experience helping global organizations prepare for the future, the authors sketch multiple long-term scenarios for the biosciences…and reveal how they will impact your health, family, career, and the society you live in.

The Truth About Buying Annuities by Steve Weisman

Product Description

Avoid the retirement annuity minefield...don’t make an expensive, catastrophic mistake!

· The truth about using annuities to protect your future
· The truth about hidden fees that could cost you a fortune
· The truth about the newest types of annuities–good and bad

Simply the best thinking…the truth and nothing but the truth

This book reveals the 50 CRITICAL FACTS you must know about annuities before you buy

How Michelle Obama Leads by New Word City

Product Description

First Lady Michelle Obama, the direct descendant of slaves, now lives in a house that was built by slaves. This daughter of a nurturing if demanding family grew up on Chicago’s South Side, where she developed discipline and diligence, two traits that carried her to Princeton and then Harvard Law School. She turned her back on wealth and prestige to follow her idealism into the public sector, where she was immediately successful. A young beauty with many suitors, she finally settled on a man named Barack Obama. Together they formed a formidable team that accomplished the seemingly impossible--electing the first African-American President of the United States. Her fascinating story is an inspiration to the world.

It’s the summer of 1860 on the Friendfield plantation in Georgetown, South Carolina--coastal low country whose snake- and mosquito-infested fields produce half of America’s rice crop. A young African slave by the name of Jim Robinson is working in the rice fields. Owned by another man, Robinson has no freedom, no choices, no opportunities. It’s hard to imagine his dreams include a vision of his great-great-granddaughter as First Lady of the United States, living in the White House, hosting state dinners, an inspiration to her own country, and one of the most admired women in the world. But it happened. Her name is Michelle Obama–and we can be sure that Jim Robinson would be as proud of his descendant as she is of him.

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Hollywood Nobody (Hollywood Nobody Series, Book 1) by Lisa Samson is also free for UK Kindle readers.

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Origin Scroll by Richard S. Tuttle

Product Description

The world is in peril. The Evil sorcerer, Sarac, seeks an ancient document entitled, the Origin Scroll. This ancient tome contains the knowledge to control the very existence of the Universes. Sarac will stop at nothing to obtain the Origin Scroll and the fate of the Universes rest with three unknown children. Alexander Tork, a fifteen-year-old boy, is an apprentice lumberman learning the trade from his father in a small nameless village in the frontier region of Targa. Oscar Dalek, a fifteen-year-old boy, lives with his widowed mother in a town on the Targa-Cordonia border. The family-s survival rests with the boy-s abilities to salvage whatever he can from the caravans crossing the border. Jenneva Roth, a fifteen-year-old girl who loves to read, lives with her aged uncle in western Targa. Unfortunately, her uncle-s health is failing and she must travel across the country to live with relatives she has never seen.

Origin Scroll by Richard S. Tuttle is a fantasy novel about three formerly insignificant young people who will meet and unite their special abilities to challenge the evil sorcerer, Sarac, before he destroys the Universes. Origin Scroll is the first volume of the Targa Trilogy. Dark Quest and Ancient Prophecy complete the Targa Trilogy.

Volume 1 of Targa Trilogy

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Roseflower Creek by Jackie Lee Miles (Amazon UK)

Product Description

The morning I died it rained. Poured down so hard it washed the blood off my face.”It seems everyone in young Lori Jean’s life has a secret, but only one secret will cost her everything.

A surprising tribute to our ability to heal and love in the most difficult circumstances. Roseflower Creek will stay with you long past its final page.

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Catch of a Lifetime by Judi Fennell (Amazon UK)

Product Description

Mermaid Angel Tritone escapes a shark by jumping into single dad Logan Hardington's fishing boat. All his young son Michael wants for his birthday is a mermaid, and if his dad will only play his cards right, now he'll have one...Angel wants to give Michael his most beloved birthday gift (a real live mermaid) while also getting to know his father and getting him to help her in her mission to stop humans from destroying the oceans. Logan has never met a woman who cared as much about the same things he does, and she's never met a man who understood her deepest commitment to humanity and nature. When an enemy of conservation shows up and tries to kill Angel, Logan has to choose between continuing the life he's known, or following the woman he loves to the bottom of the ocean...

The next two novels in Judi Fennell's mermaid series, a fresh, exciting, and different entry in romance fiction

[JSWolf]

Why is it most of the free eBooks are Christian eBooks?

[koland]

Those publishers are the ones choosing to make their books free ....

There are a large number (some of which are "from" christian publishers, but are not overtly "message-driven", while others are), but not all or even most. FT Press alone gives all the others a run for the money. For a while, most were erotica from Samhain (for that matter, there are nearly 50 such titles on the permanently free list). Some of the other big publishers have started releasing low-cost intros for authors (usually with another book coming out), rather than giving away fewer numbers (title-wise) of free books.

[koland]

Uprising (Vampire Federation) , by Scott G. Mariani, is free for UK customers only. UK link

Book Description
For millennia, the vampires walked the earth undetected, feasting on humans in keeping with ancient tradition.In the Information Age, vampires realised they must be more careful to avoid detection. In the late 20th century they created the global Vampire Federation to police vampire activity, with special agents like Alex Bishop authorised to hunt down her own kind who break the laws. The old traditions are history.But not all vampires bow down to Federation rule. When rebel vampire Gabriel Stone declares war against them, Alex and her team are plunged into danger.Police inspector Joel Solomon, haunted by a secret terror of vampires, discovers a series of corpses left behind by Stone's bloodthirsty gang. As he and Alex are drawn together in an unlikely alliance between human and vampire, the race begins to destroy the evil Stone before his uprising tears their world apart.

[koland]

Now free for US Kindle readers:

Roseflower Creek
Catch of a Lifetime

[koland]

Shadow Project, by Scott G. Mariani, is free for UK customers only. UK link

Book Description
Ex-SAS soldier Ben Hope is enjoying life at Le Val, the facility in Northern France where he trains others in the dangerous art of hostage rescue, until a chance incident forces him to take on the role of bodyguard to the Swiss billionaire Maximilian Steiner.The victim of a recent abduction attempt, Steiner believes that a neo-Nazi terror group are bent on seizing a prized document from his personal collection - one that could support claims that the Holocaust never happened.But what initially seemed like a straightforward VIP protection job is turned upside-down by the appearance of a mystery woman from Ben's past. Could he be right about her, or is he losing his edge?On a quest across Europe, Ben finds himself embroiled in a deadly kidnap intrigue and a sinister project that has lain dormant since 1944. The stakes are global - and this time Ben is also fighting to protect the people closest to him…

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Bargain book:

Lisa Gardner's Alone (Detective D. D. Warren Series #1) used to be in Amazon's $5 discounted club, but the price has now dropped further to $0.99 for the Kindle.

Product Description:

BONUS: This edition includes the full text of the novel plus the following content:
-- Lisa Gardner on Detective D.D. Warren: Who was the inspiration for D.D. Warren? Find out in this essay.
-- An excerpt from Lisa Gardner’s Love You More.

Alone . . . Massachusetts State Trooper Bobby Dodge watches a tense hostage standoff unfold through the scope of his sniper rifle. Just across the street, in wealthy Back Bay, Boston, an armed man has barricaded himself with his wife and child. The man’s finger tightens on the trigger and Dodge has only a split second to react . . . and forever pay the consequences.

Alone . . . that’s where the nightmare began for cool, beautiful, and dangerously sexy Catherine Rose Gagnon. Twenty-five years ago, she was buried underground during a month-long nightmare of abduction and abuse. Now her husband has just been killed. Her father-in-law, the powerful Judge Gagnon, blames Catherine for his son’s death . . . and for the series of unexplained illnesses that have sent her own young son repeatedly to the hospital.

Alone . . . a madman survived solitary confinement in a maximum security prison where he’d done hard time for the most sadistic of crimes. Now he walks the streets a free man, invisible, anonymous . . . and filled with an unquenchable rage for vengeance. What brings them together is a moment of violence—but what connects them is a passion far deeper and much more dangerous. For a killer is loose who’s woven such an intricate web of evil that no one is above suspicion, no one is beyond harm, and no one will see death coming until it has them cornered, helpless, and alone.

[Jhaea]

The Apothecary's Daughter is a great historical fiction novel that is very well written. I didn't know it was Christian fiction until the end, and it wasn't overt. A Free book is a free book, and if the premise strikes you as interesting, the amount of faith in a book shouldn't matter. It's all part of characterization...Off to find some Erotica

[ProfCrash]

Originally Posted by Jhaea

The Apothecary's Daughter is a great historical fiction novel that is very well written. I didn't know it was Christian fiction until the end, and it wasn't overt. A Free book is a free book, and if the premise strikes you as interesting, the amount of faith in a book shouldn't matter. It's all part of characterization...Off to find some Erotica

I got that one for free a while back. It was nicely written.