Here we go again. Another Sunday, my day off, when I can’t sleep. So why not get started on a Kindle post? There’s everything from Hollywood history to the history of the Jewish people, a couple of children’s classics as well as some Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys type mysteries, cozy mysteries, Christian Fiction including a book set in Wisconsin, chick lit, YA, and as always, some of these books are FREE! Also, Today only: Top fiction reads starting at $0.99 including books by James Patterson, Tolkien, Amy Tan and more.
Grease: The Director’s Notebook $1.99
Grease is the word . . . Released more than four decades ago, the film version of Grease is one of the highest-grossing musicals of all time and a bona fide global sensation with legions of devoted fans across generations. For the first time ever, the film’s director, Randal Kleiser, looks back at the making of this legendary cultural landmark.
Created in conjunction with Paramount Pictures and authorized by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey (via his Estate), the creators of the original musical stage play, Grease: The Director’s Notebook features rare and never-before-seen imagery from the studio’s archives, as well as Kleiser’s production notes, dialogue changes, and more. The book’s heart is Kleiser’s own heavily annotated shooting script, along with his storyboards and sketches—including lines from the play that were added to the film’s script.
The Polar Bear Expedition: The Heroes of America’s Forgotten Invasion of Russia, 1918-1919 History $1.99
In the winter of 1919, 5,000 U.S. soldiers, nicknamed “The Polar Bears,” found themselves hundreds of miles north of Moscow in desperate, bloody combat against the newly formed Soviet Union’s Red Army. Temperatures plummeted to sixty below zero. Their guns and their flesh froze. The Bolsheviks, camouflaged in white, advanced in waves across the snow like ghosts.
The Polar Bears, hailing largely from Michigan, heroically waged a courageous campaign in the brutal, frigid subarctic of northern Russia for almost a year. And yet they are all but unknown today. Indeed, during the Cold War, two U.S. presidents, Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon, would assert that the American and the Russian people had never directly fought each other. They were spectacularly wrong, and so too is the nation’s collective memory.
It began in August 1918, during the last months of the First World War: the U.S. Army’s 339th Infantry Regiment crossed the Arctic Circle; instead of the Western Front, these troops were sailing en route to Archangel, Russia, on the White Sea, to intervene in the Russian Civil War. The American Expeditionary Force, North Russia, had been sent to fight the Soviet Red Army and aid anti-Bolshevik forces in hopes of reopening the Eastern Front against Germany. And yet even after the Great War officially ended in November 1918, American troops continued to battle the Red Army and another, equally formiddable enemy, “General Winter,” which had destroyed Napoleon’s Grand Armee a century earlier and would do the same to Hitler’s once invincible Wehrmacht.
More than two hundred Polar Bears perished before their withdrawal in July 1919. But their story does not end there. Ten years after they left, a contingent of veterans returned to Russia to recover the remains of more than a hundred of their fallen brothers and lay them to rest in Michigan, where a monument honoring their service still stands.
The Sweeney Sisters: A Novel Fiction $2.99
Maggie, Eliza, and Tricia Sweeney grew up as a happy threesome in the idyllic seaside town of Southport, Connecticut. But their mother’s death from cancer fifteen years ago tarnished their golden-hued memories, and the sisters drifted apart. Their one touchstone is their father, Bill Sweeney, an internationally famous literary lion and college professor universally adored by critics, publishers, and book lovers. When Bill dies unexpectedly one cool June night, his shell-shocked daughters return to their childhood home. They aren’t quite sure what the future holds without their larger-than-life father, but they do know how to throw an Irish wake to honor a man of his stature.
But as guests pay their respects and reminisce, one stranger, emboldened by whiskey, has crashed the party. It turns out that she too is a Sweeney sister.
When Washington, DC based journalist Serena Tucker had her DNA tested on a whim a few weeks earlier, she learned she had a 50% genetic match with a childhood neighbor—Maggie Sweeney of Southport, Connecticut. It seems Serena’s chilly WASP mother, Birdie, had a history with Bill Sweeney—one that has remained totally secret until now.
Once the shock wears off, questions abound. What does this mean for William’s literary legacy? Where is the unfinished memoir he’s stashed away, and what will it reveal? And how will a fourth Sweeney sister—a blond among redheads—fit into their story?
Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom Nonfiction $2.99
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2019
New York Public Library Best Books of 2019
Kirkus Reviews Best Health and Science Books of 2019
Science Friday Best Books of 2019
New postscript by the author
From an award-winning journalist, an explosive narrative investigation of the generic drug boom that reveals fraud and life-threatening dangers on a global scale—The Jungle for pharmaceuticals
Many have hailed the widespread use of generic drugs as one of the most important public-health developments of the twenty-first century. Today, almost 90 percent of our pharmaceutical market is comprised of generics, the majority of which are manufactured overseas. We have been reassured by our doctors, our pharmacists and our regulators that generic drugs are identical to their brand-name counterparts, just less expensive. But is this really true?
Katherine Eban’s Bottle of Lies exposes the deceit behind generic-drug manufacturing—and the attendant risks for global health. Drawing on exclusive accounts from whistleblowers and regulators, as well as thousands of pages of confidential FDA documents, Eban reveals an industry where fraud is rampant, companies routinely falsify data, and executives circumvent almost every principle of safe manufacturing to minimize cost and maximize profit, confident in their ability to fool inspectors. Meanwhile, patients unwittingly consume medicine with unpredictable and dangerous effects.
Sarah, Plain and Tall (Sarah, Plain and Tall Saga Book 1) Children’s Fiction $1.99
This beloved Newbery Medal–winning book is the first of five books in Patricia MacLachlan’s chapter book series about the Witting family.
Set in the late nineteenth century and told from young Anna’s point of view, Sarah, Plain and Tall tells the story of how Sarah Elisabeth Wheaton comes from Maine to the prairie to answer Papa’s advertisement for a wife and mother. Before Sarah arrives, Anna and her younger brother Caleb wait and wonder. Will Sarah be nice? Will she sing? Will she stay?
This children’s literature classic is perfect for fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie books, historical fiction, and timeless stories using rich and beautiful language, and it’s a strong choice for independent reading. Sarah, Plain and Tall gently explores themes of abandonment, loss, and love.
This anniversary edition includes author Patricia MacLachlan’s Newbery speech, a discussion guide, and a reading list.
Russian Winter: A Novel Fiction $1.99
“This tale of a Russian ballerina who defected to Boston is a history lesson inside an evocative novel about art and betrayal.”
—O, The Oprah Magazine
In Russian Winter, the beautiful debut novel by critically acclaimed writer Daphne Kalotay, a famed ballerina’s jewelry auction in Boston reveals long-held secrets of love and family, friendship and rivalry, harkening back to Stalinist Russia. Called “tender, passionate, and moving” by Jenna Blum, the New York Times bestselling author of Those Who Save Us, Russian Winter is a perfect choice for fans of the novels of Debra Dean (The Madonnas of Leningrad), Ann Patchett (Bel Canto), and Ian McEwan (Atonement).
The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words 1000 BC-1492 AD by Simon Schama $1.99
In this magnificently illustrated cultural history—the tie-in to the pbs and bbc series The Story of the Jews—simon schama details the story of the jewish people, tracing their experience across three millennia, from their beginnings as an ancient tribal people to the opening of the new world in 1492
It is a story like no other: an epic of endurance in the face of destruction, of creativity in the face of oppression, joy amidst grief, the affirmation of life despite the steepest of odds.
It spans the millennia and the continents—from India to Andalusia and from the bazaars of Cairo to the streets of Oxford. It takes you to unimagined places: to a Jewish kingdom in the mountains of southern Arabia; a Syrian synagogue glowing with radiant wall paintings; the palm groves of the Jewish dead in the Roman catacombs. And its voices ring loud and clear, from the severities and ecstasies of the Bible writers to the love poems of wine bibbers in a garden in Muslim Spain.
In The Story of the Jews, the Talmud burns in the streets of Paris, massed gibbets hang over the streets of medieval London, a Majorcan illuminator redraws the world; candles are lit, chants are sung, mules are packed, ships loaded with gems and spices founder at sea.
And a great story unfolds. Not—as often imagined—of a culture apart, but of a Jewish world immersed in and imprinted by the peoples among whom they have dwelled, from the Egyptians to the Greeks, from the Arabs to the Christians.
Which makes the story of the Jews everyone’s story, too.
Your Life for Mine: An absolutely gripping psychological thriller with a twist you won’t see coming! $.99
Meet Beth Turner.
From the outside she looks like any other thirty-three-year-old woman, with a gorgeous house and beautiful daughter.
But when Beth receives a threatening text message from an anonymous number on the way to her surprise birthday party, she knows her time is up.
Enjoy your birthday, Beth. It’ll be your last.
Beth has a secret that has haunted her past for as long as she can remember. A secret that only those closest to her know. A stranger died once… because of Beth.
As she arrives at her house, there’s only one thing she knows for certain, someone at the party wants her to pay.
Septimus Heap, Book One: Magyk $1.99
The first book in the internationally bestselling Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage, featuring the funny and fantastic adventures of a wizard apprentice and his quest to become an ExtraOrdinary Wizard.
New York Times Bestselling Series
“A deliciously spellbinding series opener.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Fun, mystery, and rollicking characters.” —VOYA (starred review)
“Fluent, charismatic storytelling.” —ALA Booklist
Septimus Heap, the seventh son of the seventh son, disappears the night he is born, pronounced dead by the midwife. That same night, the baby’s father, Silas Heap, comes across an abandoned child in the snow—a newborn girl with violet eyes. Who is this mysterious baby girl, and what really happened to the Heaps’ beloved son Septimus?
The first book in this enthralling series by Angie Sage leads readers on a fantastic journey filled with quirky characters and Magykal charms, potions, and spells. Magyk is the original story of lost and rediscovered identities, rich with humor and heart.
The Man Who Died Laughing (The Stewart Hoag Mysteries Book 1) Cozy Mystery $.99
First in the Edgar Award–winning series from “a novelist whose champagne-fizzy mysteries tickle the brain, heart, and funny bone in equal measure” (A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times–bestselling author).
Stewart Hoag’s first novel made him the toast of New York. Everyone in Manhattan wanted to be his friend, and he traveled the cocktail circuit supported by Merilee, his wife, and Lulu, his basset hound. But when writer’s block sunk his second novel, his friends, money, and wife all disappeared. Only Lulu stuck by him. The only opportunity left is ghostwriting—an undignified profession that still beats dental school. His first client is Sonny Day, an aging comic who was the king of slapstick three decades ago. Since he and his partner had a falling out in the late 1950s, Day has grown embittered and poor, until the only thing left for him to do is write a memoir. Hoagy and Lulu fly to Hollywood expecting a few months of sunshine and easy living. Instead they find Day’s corpse, and a murder rap with Hoagy’s name on it.
When downtrodden checkout assistant Bonnie Green receives a letter from a mysterious uncle, she can hardly believe her eyes.
Gifted a hundred-year lease on a famous cafe situated in the middle of a mythical theme park, Bonnie sets off with her best friend Debbie on an adventure to a hidden valley in the Lake District where they will find new friendship, love, and happiness, all set against the magic of Christmas … and more marshmallows than they can possibly eat….
Timekeeper Young Adult $1.99
“I was in an accident. I got out. I’m safe now.” An alternate Victorian world controlled by clock towers, where a damaged clock can fracture time—and a destroyed one can stop it completely.
A prodigy mechanic who can repair not only clockwork, but time itself, determined to rescue his father from a Stopped town.
A series of mysterious bombings that could jeopardize all of England.
> A boy who would give anything to relive his past, and one who would give anything to live at all.
A romance that will shake the very foundations of time.
The Mystery of the Secret Lake (The Mystery Series Book 13) Middle Grade FREE! I got some of these volumes years ago when my older two kids were into mysteries. They are really good; they remind me of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, and you can’t beat free! If you like this book, you might be interested in the whole series The Mystery Series (14 book series) which runs about $2.99 per book for the other titles.
When a plane carrying Will and his father disappears without a trace, the Mystery Kids are determined to leave no stone unturned in order to find out what happened to them.
Follow the children as they flee a raging wildfire, explore an underground labyrinth, fly into a raging storm, climb a treacherous cliff, survive a midnight swim in rough seas, and more!
This adventure novel is set in 1950’s Britain and will suit anyone who enjoys Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys or the Famous Five.
Also available from the series: The Mystery of Smugglers Cove (The Mystery Series 1), The Mystery of Santa Claus , The Mystery of the Missing Money (The Mystery Series, Short Story 1) and more, all for FREE! You can get the entire The Mystery Series Short Story (13 book series) for only $5.94.
Sword and Sorcery Box Set 1 Fantasy $.99
FIRE AND SWORD
A broken nation in need of a savior.
Ravaged by plague, decimated by dark magic, infiltrated by a foreign evil seeking to dominate from within, Brynth is on the eve of its dissolution. When all the good men are dead and gone, who is to answer the call and defy what is wicked for what is right?
A Twisted Tale of Three Unlikely Heroes.
Heretic monk turned Sorcerer, Aldous Weaver. Infamous crusader turned fugitive, Kendrick the Cold. Aristocrat, rogue, monster hunter, and legend in his own mind, Theron Ward.
Three men condemned to die for their crimes find in each other both the will and the means to survive. A dark brotherhood with Sword and Sorcery is forged, and all monsters meek and mighty do fear the three.
CATACOMBS OF TIME
It’s going to be a long and bloody night.
The clock is ticking and Dr. De’Brouillard has a date. Dinner is at the Graves and a contract to cure one of the cursed is sitting on the plate. But when an old and dear friend reaches out from murky shadow for a helping hand, will the Doctor take it, risking all if he ends up being late?
New heroes join the fray. Are they friend or foe?
Dr. Gaige De’Brouillard believes science, not magic, conquers all. Even death is just an equation to be solved.
Malory “Butcher” Dahmer knows that life is but a dream, no wickedness, no sorcery too strange or obscene.
An Academic and a Gangster make for an interesting team.
THE PYRES
Monsters. Magic. Epic Battles.
The mountains and valleys of Romaria echo with the calamitous sounds of civil war. A New Order challenges old gods and on the festival night of the Pyres, the tides of destruction are fully unleashed.
When the great white city of Brasov turns black with ash, when the sky goes red and the moon hangs like a dark void above, who will stand against the darkness? Heretic monk turned Sorcerer, Aldous Weaver. Infamous crusader turned fugitive, Kendrick the Cold. Aristocrat, rogue, monster hunter, and legend in his own mind, Theron Ward.
The Lords of Discipline: A Novel by Pat Conroy Literary Fiction $1.99
A cadet encounters hazing and racism at an elite military academy in this novel from the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Prince of Tides.
As Will McLean begins his studies at the Carolina Military Institute, the American South is in turmoil over desegregation. An outsider to the harsh authoritarianism of the military, Will survives the school’s notorious freshman hazing, and avoids attention from its fabled and menacing secret society, the Ten.
But when he is asked to mentor the school’s first black student, Will is drawn into the intense racial politics—and the threat of violence—simmering beneath the surface.
Based on Conroy’s own military school experience and featuring his lush prose and richly drawn characters, The Lords of Discipline is a powerful story of a young man’s stand for justice and the friendship, love, and courage he finds along the way.
Beach Rental: An Emerald Isle, NC Novel (#1) Contemporary Christian Fiction $.99
On the Crystal Coast of North Carolina, in the small town of Emerald Isle…
Juli Cooke, hard-working and getting nowhere fast, marries a dying man, Ben Bradshaw, for a financial settlement, not expecting he will set her on a journey of hope and love. The journey brings her to Luke Winters, a local art dealer, but Luke resents the woman who married his sick friend and warns her not to hurt Ben—and he’s watching to make sure she doesn’t.
Until Ben dies and the stakes change.
Framed by the timelessness of the Atlantic Ocean and the brilliant blue of the beach sky, Juli struggles against her past, the opposition of Ben’s and Luke’s families, and even the living reminder of her marriage—to build a future with hope and perhaps to find the love of her life—if she can survive the danger from her past.
Winter’s Secret: Clean Romance Mystery (Northern Intrigue Book 1) Christian Fiction FREE!
Welcome to Steadfast, Wisconsin, a small town whose people and mysteries you may never forget~
Some secrets chill to the bone….
Smashed heirlooms, ripped upholstery and rifled drawers-who is breaking into homes during a record-breaking snowy winter, vandalizing and stealing.
Whoever it is–is targeting the most vulnerable–the seniors of a small northwoods town. As the new sheriff, Rodd Durand, home again to small town Steadfast, Wisconsin, takes on the Snowmobile Burglar.
In the course of her duties, Wendy Carey, the home health nurse, discovers each new break-in and wants more than anything to stop him. The small town reels as the burglar eludes capture and steps up his crimes. A vindictive woman and a secret baby heighten the suspense. When Wendy and Rodd begin to fall in love, family complicates matters. But the real stumbling block to their love lies within. Can they break through their own insecurities over the past? Download this heartwarming mystery romance today.
The Lutheran Ladies’ Circle: Plucking One String Christian Fiction FREE!
What happens when strong-willed women get tired of one person running everything?
A sparkling, comic disregard for change.
If you’re looking for a sweet book about dealing with change—this isn’t it. But you will laugh as a cast of lively characters push through conflicted times.
The Lutheran Ladies are sassy, have “strong-spine” opinions, and have stepped out of your office, your kid’s soccer club, or your church to live on these pages. They deal with change—sometimes poorly—but with humor and heartache; they’re on life’s journey.
In Book One: Vera Henley has pulled the strings of the Lutheran Ladies Circle for years; now everything is unraveling. Traditions are changing. Even the annual rummage sale can’t escape modernization. And the independent Circle women are cheering the changes—all except for Vera. Her humorous efforts to stop time time are often heart-breaking. And when her high-maintenance, crazy aunt introduces even more rebellion and upheaval, Vera is forced to pick through the chaos and choose: Which threads of change should she pluck—or can she bend others to doing it her way?
The Bagington Hall Mystery (A Maggie Darling Murder Mystery Book 1) Cozy Mystery FREE
HAVE YOU MET MAGGIE?
Maggie Darling, forty-something former London pie and mash shop girl, returned home to the seaside village of Cromer for a relaxing life. Thanks to her Uncle Tristan, things haven’t worked out quite as she expected, much to her great annoyance.
THE BAGINGTON HALL MYSTERY: Shadowy secrets lurk beneath the surface of an idyllic Norfolk Country House…
Norfolk, England, April 1923. Cromer is a sleepy village on the English coast. But things are about to liven up there, when Maggie Darling returns home from a seventeen year stint in London to work for her uncle’s new maid service business. No sooner has she arrived, when she gets mixed up in an agriculture strike, mistaken as a suffragette and loses a three legged kitten. But when a dead body shows up it all becomes very complicated…
Skeletons in the Attic: A Marketville Mystery Cozy Mystery $.99
Calamity (Callie) Barnstable isn’t surprised to learn she’s the sole beneficiary of her late father’s estate, though she is shocked to discover she has inherited a house in the town of Marketville—a house she didn’t know he had. However, there are conditions attached to Callie’s inheritance: she must move to Marketville, live in the house, and solve her mother’s murder.
Callie’s not keen on dredging up a thirty-year-old mystery, but if she doesn’t do it, there’s a scheming psychic named Misty Rivers who hopes to expose the Barnstable family secrets herself. Determined to thwart Misty and fulfill her father’s wishes, Callie accepts the challenge. But is she ready to face the skeletons hidden in the attic?
Lexie Starr Cozy Mysteries Boxed Set (Three Complete Cozy Mysteries in One) Cozy Mystery $.99
Join widowed library assistant and amateur sleuth Lexie Starr on her first three encounters with mayhem, murder, and a potential suitor.
Book 1: Lexie Starr accidently discovers that her new son-in-law may be guilty of murdering his first wife. Then Lexie’s daughter, Wendy, disappears.
Book 2: At the Grand Opening of a local B&B, the Historical Society’s president is found murdered in the inn’s grandest suite, and Lexie, much to the owner’s chagrin, horns her way in on the investigation.
Book 3: Lexie Starr has converted her boyfriend’s B&B into a haunted house for Halloween. But when a young college student is found truly dead in the makeshift coffin in the parlor, Lexie fears for her boyfriend’s business and sets out to solve the murder.
The Babbling Brook Naked Poker Club – Book One (The Babbling Brook Naked Poker Club Series 1) Cozy Mystery FREE!
In Book One of this cozy mystery series, a morose parrot with a reputation for biting sums up Brookside Retirement Community for reluctant resident, Josephine Bartlett. But when Brookside turns out to be a setting for art theft, dodgy dealings, and naked poker it becomes vastly more interesting. Josephine investigates the unusual goings on with friend and handwriting expert, Lill Fitzel. And the two befriend a young woman Josephine tries to prevent from making the same mistakes she has made.
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