Bargain (Kindle) From Bloomsbury ($1.23-2.90)

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Bargains from Bloomsbury:

Douglass and Lincoln by Stephen Kendrick and Paul Kendrick for $1.23

Product Description
The influence Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln had on each other and on the nation altered the course of slavery and the outcome of the Civil War.

Although Abraham Lincoln deeply opposed the existence of slavery, he saw his mission throughout much of the Civil War as preserving the U nion, with or without slavery. Frederick Douglass, a former slave, passionately believed the war’s central mission to be the total abolition of slavery. During their meetings between 1863 and 1865, and through reading each other’s speeches and letters, they managed to forge a strong, mutual understanding and respect that helped convince Lincoln the war could not be truly won without black soldiers and permanent emancipation.

Mr. Basketball: George Mikan, the Minneapolis Lakers, and the Birth of the NBA by Michael Schumacher for $1.42

Product Description
The definitive biography of the first dominant big man in professional basketball, published on the sixtieth anniversary of his debut with the Minneapolis Lakers.

Before Shaquille O'Neal and before Bill Russell, there was George Mikan, a six-foot-ten, 240-pound center, whose quiet demeanor and bespectacled face belied his competitive fire. A four-time All-American at DePaul and a six-time professional champion, Mikan was such an unstoppable force--and a national sensation--that, when his Minneapolis Lakers played the New York Knickerbockers in 1949, the marquee outside Madison Square Garden read simply, "George Mikan vs. Knicks." Drawing on extensive interviews--with former teammates, opponents, coaches, friends, and rivals--critically acclaimed author Michael Schumacher reveals, for the first time, a wonderfully nuanced portrait of one of the most unheralded athletes of our time, and a fascinating look at the birth of the National Basketball Association.

In the Company of Angels: A Novel by Thomas E. Kennedy for $1.95

Product Description
In the Company of Angels is the powerful story of two damaged souls trying to find their way from darkness toward light.

Imprisoned and tortured for months by Pinochet's henchmen for teaching political poetry to his students, Bernardo Greene is visited by two angels, who promise him that he will survive to experience beauty and love once again. Months later, at the Torture Rehabilitation Center in Copenhagen, the Chilean exile befriends Michela Ibsen, herself a survivor of domestic abuse. In the long nights of summer, the two of them struggle to heal, to forgive those who have left them damaged, and to trust themselves to love.

Dense with wisdom and humanity, possessed of a timeless, fable-like quality, In the Company of Angels is a riveting read and a testament to the resilience and complexity of the human heart.

The novel marks the first large-scale US publication of a major American author, known internationally but only within literary circles in his homeland.

Entice by Carrie Jones for $1.99

Product Description
Zara and Nick are soul mates, meant to be together forever. But that's not quite how things have worked out. For starters, well, Nick is dead. Supposedly, he's been taken to a mythic place for warriors known as Valhalla, so Zara and her friends might be able to get him back. But it's taking time, and meanwhile a group of evil pixies is devastating Bedford, with more teens going missing every day. An all-out war seems imminent, and the good guys need all the warriors they can find. But how to get to Valhalla? And even if Zara and her friends discover the way, there's that other small problem: Zara's been pixie kissed. When she finds Nick, will he even want to go with her? Especially since she hasn't turned into just any pixie. . . She's Astley's queen.

My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler for $1.99

Product Description
You've either done it or know someone who has: the one-night stand, the familiar outcome of a night spent at a bar, sometimes the sole payoff for your friend's irritating wedding, or the only relief from a disastrous vacation. Often embarrassing and uncomfortable, occasionally outlandish, but most times just a necessary and irresistible evil, the one-night stand is a social rite as old as sex itself and as common as a bar stool. Enter Chelsea Handler. Gorgeous, sharp, and anything but shy, Chelsea loves men and lots of them. My Horizontal Life chronicles her romp through the different bedrooms of a variety of suitors, a no-holds-barred account of what can happen between a man and a sometimes very intoxicated, outgoing woman during one night of passion. From her short fling with a Vegas stripper to her even shorter dalliance with a well-endowed little person, from her uncomfortable tryst with a cruise ship performer to her misguided rebound with a man who likes to play leather dress-up, Chelsea recalls the highs and lows of her one-night stands with hilarious honesty. Encouraged by her motley collection of friends (aka: her partners in crime) but challenged by her family members (who at times find themselves a surprise part of the encounter), Chelsea hits bottom and bounces back, unafraid to share the gritty details. My Horizontal Life is one guilty pleasure you won't be ashamed to talk about in the morning.

Need by Carrie Jones for $1.99

Product Description
Now fans of Stephenie Meyer and Melissa Marr have a new author to devour . . .

Zara collects phobias the way other high school girls collect lipsticks. Little wonder, since life’s been pretty rough so far. Her father left, her stepfather just died, and her mother’s pretty much checked out. Now Zara’s living with her grandmother in sleepy, cold Maine so that she stays “safe.” Zara doesn’t think she’s in danger; she thinks her mother can’t deal.

Wrong. Turns out that guy she sees everywhere, the one leaving trails of gold glitter, isn’t a figment of her imagination. He’s a pixie—and not the cute, lovable kind with wings. He’s the kind who has dreadful, uncontrollable needs. And he’s trailing Zara.

With suspense, romance, and paranormal themes, this exciting breakout novel has all the elements to keep teens rapidly turning the pages.

A Whole Nother Story by Dr. Cuthbert Soup for $1.99

Product Description
The three Cheeseman children, their father, and their psychic dog are all on the run. From whom? Well the CIA, naturally. But also corporate agents #5, #29, and # 207, plus two international superspies -- one of whom happens to be a chimpanzee. They all want Dr. Cheeseman and his late wife's greatest invention–a machine with unspeakable powers–OK, I'll say it. It's a time machine. But it's not working right yet, so put all ideas of time travel out of your head.

Instead, please enjoy this high stakes, high action, hijinx-filled chase, and the bizarre characters our Cheeseman friends will meet as they protect not just their parents' invention, but their mother's sacred memory. It's an adventure novel like no other.

Oh yeah, and did we mention the entertaining, plot-exposition filled, unsolicited advice you'll receive along the way? So you didn't ask for it? Yeah, that's why it's unsolicited.

Unsolicited Advice #1: Read this book.

Idiots, Hypocrites, Demagogues, and More Idiots by Paul Slansky for $2.39

Product Description
Outrageous, offensive, and mind-boggling political blunders of the last fifty years, collected here for the first time.

There’s nothing more enjoyable than when political bigwigs stick their feet in their mouth. Whether discussing foreign policy, the choice of vice-presidential running mate, the State of the Union, or the state of their marriage, the chances to screw up political careers are seemingly endless. In Idiots, Hypocrites, Crimals, and More Idiots, humorist Paul Slansky gathers together some of the most outrageous, hypocritical, self-serving, demagogic, criminal, offensive, surreal, and just plain idiotic moments in American politics over the last fifty years. With deliciously subversive sections entitled “Inaccurate Prognostications,” “Delicious Wallows In Schadenfreude,” “Bizarre Blurts,” and “Freudian Slips,” this book brings together the worst mistakes America’s politicians, policy-makers, and wonk-heads ever had the audacity to commit—sometimes two or three times.

Private Papers of Easter Jewel by Maureen Lindley for $2.60

Product Description
An electrifying epic, based on the incredible true story of a Chinese princess turned spy.

Peking, 1914. When the eight-year-old princess Eastern Jewel is caught spying on her father’s liaison with a servant girl, she is banished from the palace, sent to live with a powerful family in Japan. Renamed Yoshiko Kawashima, she quickly falls in love with her adoptive country, where she earns a scandalous reputation, taking fencing lessons, smoking opium, and entertaining numerous lovers. Sent to Mongolia to become an obedient wife, Yoshiko mounts a daring escape and eventually finds her way back to Peking high society—this time with orders from the Japanese secret service.

Based on the true story of a rebellious woman who earned a controversial place in history, The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel is a vibrant reimagining of a thrilling life—a rich historical epic of palace intrigue, sexual manipulation, and international espionage.

My Judy Garland Life: A Memoir by Susie Boyt for $2.86

Product Description
An irresistible mixture of memoir, biography, cultural analysis, hero worship, and sequinstudded self-help that will speak to anyone who’s ever nursed an obsession.

Judy Garland has been an important figure in Susie Boyt’s life since she was three years old: comforting, inspiring, and at times disturbing her. In this unique book, Boyt travels deep into the underworld of hero worship, examining our understanding of rescue, consolation, love, grief, and fame through the prism of Judy. Her journey takes in a duetting breakfast with Mickey Rooney, a munchkin luncheon, a latenight spree at the Minnesota Judy Garland Museum, and a breathless, semi-sacred encounter with Liza Minnelli.

Layering key episodes from Garland’s life with defining moments from her own, Boyt explores with insight and humor what it means, exactly, to adore someone you don’t know. Does hero worship have to be a pursuit that’s low in status or can it be performed with pride and style? Are there similarities that lie at the heart of all fandom? Chronicling her obsession, Boyt illuminates her own life and perfectly distills why Judy Garland is such a legend.

Invisible River by Helena McEwen for $2.88

Product Description

When Evie and her father say good-bye at the train station, they are both on their own for the first time since her mother's death. But Evie is not lonely for long. At art school in London, she is quickly caught up in colors and critiques, gallery visits and sketching expeditions. She finds fiercely loyal friends-Rob, pragmatic and pregnant; Bianca, dramatic and Italian; and Cecile, the sidelined ballerina-and stumbles tentatively toward a relationship with Zeb, a second-year sculptor with hair blue-black like a crow.

But when her father arrives in the city, sour with alcohol and slumped on the doorstep of her new home, Evie must determine what she owes her past, and how it will shape the life, and the art, she's trying to create.

Gently and genuinely observed, written with painterly beauty, Invisible River is an unforgettable novel of the mysteries, desolations, and heart-soaring hopes of entering adulthood.

A Nuclear Family Vacation by Nathan Hodge and Sharon Weinberger for $2.90

Product Description
Two Washington, D.C., defense reporters do for nukes what Sarah Vowell did for presidential assassinations in this fascinating, kaleidoscopic portrait of nuclear weaponry.
In A Nuclear Family Vacation, husband-and-wife journalists Sharon Weinberger and Nathan Hodge hit the open road to explore the secretive world of nuclear weaponry. Along the way, they answer the questions most nuclear tourists don’t get to ask: Are nuclear weapons still on hair-trigger alert? Is there such a thing as a suitcase nuke? Is Iran really building the bomb? Together, Weinberger and Hodge visit top-secret locations like the Isfahan Uranium Conversion Facility in Iran, the United States’ Kwajalein military outpost in the Marshall Islands, the Y-12 facility in Tennessee, and “Site R,” a bunker known as the “Underground Pentagon,” rumored to be Vice President Cheney’s personal “undisclosed location” of choice. Their atomic road trip reveals plans to revitalize the U.S. nuclear arsenal, even as the United States pushes other countries to disarm. Weaving together travel writing with world-changing events, A Nuclear Family Vacation unearths unknown—and often quite entertaining—stories about the nuclear world.

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Updating the Bloomsbury bargains for the US Kindle :

A Nuclear Family Vacation by Nathan Hodge and Sharon Weinberger is down to $1.33

Idiots, Hypocrites, Demagogues, and More Idiots by Paul Slansky is down to $1.42

Private Papers of Easter Jewel by Maureen Lindley is down to $1.63

In the Company of Angels: A Novel by Thomas E. Kennedy is down to $1.76

The Lottery Wars: Long Odds, Fast Money, and the Battle Over an American Institution by Matthew Sweeney is $1.42

My Invisible Sister by Beatrice Colin and Sara Pinto is $1.46

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More bargains:

Moonlight in Odessa: A Novel by Janet Skeslien Charles is $1.97

Product Description
Odessa, Ukraine, is the humor capital of the former Soviet Union, but in an upside-down world where waiters earn more than doctors and Odessans depend on the Mafia for basics like phone service and medical supplies, no one is laughing. After months of job hunting, Daria, a young engineer, finds a plum position at a foreign firm as a secretary. But every plum has a pit. In this case, it's Mr. Harmon, who makes it clear that sleeping with him is job one. Daria evades Harmon's advances by recruiting her neighbor, the slippery Olga, to be his mistress. But soon Olga sets her sights on Daria's job.

Daria begins to moonlight as an interpreter at Soviet Unions(TM), a matchmaking agency that organizes "socials" where lonely American men can meet desperate Odessan women. Her grandmother wants Daria to leave Ukraine for good and pushes her to marry one of the men she meets, but Daria already has feelings for a local. She must choose between her world and America, between Vlad, a sexy, irresponsible mobster, and Tristan, a teacher nearly twice her age. Daria chooses security and America. Only it's not exactly what she thought it would be…

A wry, tender, and darkly funny look at marriage, the desires we don't acknowledge, and the aftermath of communism, Moonlight in Odessa is a novel about the choices and sacrifices that people make in the pursuit of love and stability.

The Holy City by Patrick McCabe is $1.79

Product Description
A compelling, disturbing and darkly funny new novel from the author of Breakfast on Pluto, The Butcher Boy and Winterwood. As Chris McCool looks back on the glory days of his youth, the swinging sixties of rural Ireland, he can honestly say he had it all. He had the moves, he had the car, and he had Dolly, a woman who called him -Mr Wonderful-. But there was another Mr Wonderful in town, a young Nigerian named Marcus whose dazzling devoutness was all but irresistible. Of course Chris was interested in Marcus only because of their mutual appreciation of the finer things. That was all. But Chris was always a hopeless romantic - perhaps even occasionally obsessive. Spiked with macabre humour and disquieting revelations, The Holy City is brilliant, disturbing and compelling.

The Pindar Diamond by Katie Hickman is $1.86

Product Description
A tale of lust, greed, and danger set in seventeenth-century Venice, The Pindar Diamond is a gripping and superbly told historical novel. Venice, 1604. When rumours of a rare and priceless diamond begin to circulate amongst the gamblers and courtesans of the Venetian demi-monde, the Levant Company merchant Paul Pindar becomes convinced that the jewel is linked to the fate of his former love, Celia Lamprey. As his obsession with the mysterious stone grows it becomes clear that there are other, more sinister forces at play. Is the diamond real, or is it just a trick to lure him to his ruin?

Season of Ice by Diane Les Becquets is $1.98

Product Description
Seventeen-year-old Genesis's father ventures out on a lake in Northern Maine for one last catch of the season-and never returns. As the lake freezes over, so, too, do the lives and hopes of her family. Because with no body, and no hope of finding one until the lake thaws, the family is denied access to insurance money. As the long winter drags on, Genesis begins to unravel the truth behind the rumors-of an affair, and possibly worse-and for the first time, questions how well she, or anyone, really knew her dad. Her odyssey will take her into the thick woods along the Canadian border where her father worked at a logging camp . . . and into a romance she isn't sure she wants. Taut, dark, and compelling, Season of Ice perfectly captures the complex, interior life of a young woman bracing for truth, inadvertently finding love, and waiting for answers that only the thaw can bring.

The Truth About Santa by Gregory Mone is $2.04

Product Description
We all know Santa Claus: fat, jolly, omniscient, swift. Lives in a nice home in the Arctic, with the missus and a pack of elves. Well, forget what you know. Santa Claus is from Greenpoint, Brooklyn, as it turns out, and he’s not as fat as he used to be. Here’s something else you didn’t know: he’s been dabbling in some futuristic technology, and has found myriad ways to make his job possible. How can Santa know who’s been naughty and nice? Simple: implant listening devices into your ornaments. How can he make it to every house Christmas Eve? That’s nothing a little cloning and some wormholes can’t solve. And he has plenty of other tactics: quantum entanglement, organ replacement, drug-induced hibernation, and unmanned aerial vehicles, to name just a few. In this fantastically illustrated, affectionate, and hilarious book, Gregory Mone uses science and technology to overturn the assumption that Santa can’t be real. Drawing on the work of accomplished scientists and researchers, Mone gives us a whole new portrait of this remarkable man and the miracles he makes happen every year. With imaginative artwork and an eye-catching package, this book makes an outstanding Christmas gift for just about anyone.

50 Days Worse Than Yours by Justin Racz is $2.26

Product Description
We've all had bad days: lost our keys, broken a nail, missed a train. Some days, however, are much worse than others, as Justin Racz proves in this hilarious new addition to the smash hit Worse Than Yours series. Collecting fifty of the most memorable "bad days," this outrageous book catalogs everything from the daily ("First gray hair noticed") to the legendary ("Eve eats apple"), from the public ("New York City sanitation strike") to the painfully private ("Ricky gets atomic wedgie, 1976"). An inspired and fully illustrated testament to schadenfreude, 50 Days Worse than Yours proves that nothing is as universal as suffering.
Whether you're a kid ("Picked last in gym-again"), a new parent ("Barney invented"), or facing down middle age ("AARP card arrives"), you can be sure to find some comfort in this riotous compilation of things gone wrong. After all, it could have been much, much worse…

The Perfect Stranger: The Truth About Mothers and Nannies by Lucy Kaylin is $2.36

Product Description
Lucy Kaylin has written a book that begins with the watershed moment in a mother's life-when she decides to hire a proxy to care for her children. Given that it's not only affluent women who turn to nannies anymore, this arrangement is also a watershed in the history of women's rights. Women now have choices. And therein lies the problem. Having choices has forced women to confront their feelings about motherhood and work, and to make difficult decisions requiring wrenching sacrifice. It's a murky, ambivalent time, and nowhere is that ambivalence more acutely expressed than in a working mother's relationships with her children's nanny, who serves such a precious function in the private space that is the family home. Lucy Kaylin, an experienced journalist who has interviewed prominent newsmakers of every stripe, isn't afraid to ask the tough questions to get to the heart of this complex relationship. She looks at the nanny/mother relationship from both sides. As a working mother who hired a babysitter of her own, she knows the process intimately. Kaylin exposes both the great joys and the difficult emotional issues that play out when working women invite perfect strangers into their homes to help care for their children.

A Pint of Plain by Bill Barich is $2.36

Product Description
After meeting and marrying an Irish woman and moving to Dublin, celebrated New Yorker writer Bill Barich found himself looking for a traditional Irish pub to become his local. Pubs have always been at the heart of Irish life and culture, proliferating in cities and towns alike, so Barich had no shortage of choices. But to his surprise, he could not find what he considered a classic pub; each had developed fatal flaws, be they flat screen televisions, touristy souvenirs, kitschy décor, or other accommodations to modernity. Even the pubs that looked authentic and old were often not what they appeared. All of which signalled to one of our sharpest chroniclers of culture that something deeper was at play--an erosion of the essence of Ireland, perhaps without the Irish even being aware. A Pint of Plain became a quest to chronicle the state of the Irish pub today, and by extension to examine Irish culture at a time of extraordinary change across the country. From the famed watering holes of Dublin to the pubs and shebeens (small bars within houses) in the country, Barich introduces a colorful array of personalities--from publicans to customers--whose observations are as tasty as the pints they serve and drink. He blends the history of Guinness into his story, and also explores the impact of the IPC (Irish Pub Company), which, for a fee, will help anyone create an ”authentic” pub anywhere in the world. Weaving tradition and lore, literary and film references, into his narrative, Barich has written a book that will be irresistible to anyone who is Irish or who appreciates the finer points of Irish culture.

Working IX to V by Vicki León is $2.63

Product Description
Vicki Leon, the popular author of the Uppity Women series (more than 335,000 in print), has turned her impressive writing and research skills to the entertaining and unusual array of the peculiar jobs, prized careers and passionate pursuits of ancient Greece and Rome. From Architect to Vicarius (a deputy or stand-in)-and everything in between-Working IX to V introduces readers to the most unique (dream incubator), most courageous (elephant commander), and even the most ordinary (postal worker) jobs of the ancient world. Vicki Leon brought a light and thoughtful touch to women-s history in her earlier books, and she brings the same joy and singular voice to the daily work of the ancient world. You-ll be surprised to learn how bloody an editor-s job used to be, how even a slave could purchase a vicarius to carry out his duties and that early Greeks had their own ghost-busters with the apt title of psychopompus. In addition to stand-alone profiles on callings, trades, and professions, Leon offers numerous sidebar entries about actual people who performed these jobs, giving a human face to the ancient workplace. Combining wit and rich scholarship, Working IX to V is filled with anecdotes, insights, and little-known facts that will inform and amuse readers of all ages. For anyone captivated by the ancient past, Working IX to V brings a unique insight into the daily grind of the classical world. You may never look at your day-to-day work in the same way!

Pastworld by Ian Beck is $2.61

Product Description
What if Victorian London were an amusement park where the inhabitants were actors hired to entertain visitors from the twenty-first century? Now imagine if Jack the Ripper was a planned attraction gone horribly wrong. Life inside the park, Pastworld, is all Eve has ever known. But then she meets a tourist in terrible trouble. Their adventure through this dark and dangerous theme park is sure to grab teens.

Then Came the Evening: A Novel by Brian Hart is $2.77

Product Description
Bandy Dorner, home from Vietnam, awakes with his car mired in a canal, his cabin reduced to ashes, and his pregnant wife preparing to leave town with her lover. Within moments, a cop lies bleeding in the road.

Eighteen years later, Bandy's son -- a stranger bearing his name -- returns to the town, where the memory of his father's crime still hangs thick. When an accident brings the family -- paroled father, widowed mother, injured son -- back together, the three must confront their past, and struggle against their fate.

Like a traditional Greek tragedy, suffused with the mud, ice, and rock of the raw Idaho landscape, Then Came the Evening is tautly plotted and emotionally complex -- a stunning debut.

Color Blind by Precious Williams is $2.80

Product Description
Born in Africa to a Nigerian princess, Precious Williams was less than one year old when her mother put an ad in Nursery World: "Pretty Nigerian baby girl needs new home." Precious's mother had flown to London in search of a new life--a life in which there was no space for a daughter. The first response came rom a 60-year-old white woman, Nan, who prided herself for being "color blind." Correspondence were exchanged, no questions asked, and Precious left her mother for Nan's home in rural England. Nan may have been color blind, but others in their small town were not. Precious grew up in an entirely white household, attending all-white schools, where she remained for her entire childhood. She was taunted by her peers and misunderstood by Nan. Precious's mother occasionally made fleeting, magical visits until she was nine, but would often critisize her for being "too white." Finding it impossible to related to any family members--biological or surragoate--she became disillusioned and self-destructive. She retreated to her imagination, forging an identity from characters she'd seen on TV, in movies, and read about in books. Color Blind is a powerful coming-of-age memoir exploring themes of motherhood and race.