Free eBooks: 10/15/2011

At the start of every month, you can usually snag some pretty good books as free e-books from Amazon.com (for Kindle) and Barnes & Noble (for nook). The University of Chicago offers a free e-book each month as well. Read on to see the 31 freebies I've snagged so far this month, with book descriptions from the sites and links to purchase them.

Please Note: While all of these books were free at the time of my purchase, that does not guarantee that they are still free or that they will remain free. Make sure you check the price listed before purchasing any books.

Barnes & Noble / Amazon.com (nook & Kindle)

Beer is Proof God Loves Us
by Charles W. Bamforth
BN.com | Amazon.com

Don’t just drink beer: Experience it. All of it.

Discover the extraordinary culture and history of brewing: the remarkable craft that reaches back before written history. Visit legendary British pubs now fading sadly into memory…and the craft breweries, corporate boardrooms, and home brewers that are the new future of beer. Learn how to tell a great beer from a good one... find surprising new research on beer and human health... uncover beer in the Bible (and other unlikely places)... and discover divinity and transcendence in your very next brew.

Yes, there’s more to beer than you ever imagined: It is the most complex, subtle, and remarkable beverage humans have ever created. Its story deserves to be told with love and passion. Charles W. Bamforth brings all that, plus a lifetime of brewing knowledge and wisdom. Read his book, and you’ll agree with Benjamin Franklin’s apocryphal quote: Beer truly is proof that God loves us.

A Brisket, A Casket
(#1 in the Deadly Deli mystery series)
by Delia Rosen
BN.com | Amazon.com

Gwen (nee Katz) Silver heard the brisket at her uncle's Jewish deli, Murray the Pastrami Swami—the only one of its kind in Nashville, Tennessee—was "to die for." But she didn't realize that meant literally...

When Gwen learns she's inherited Murray's, the native New Yorker leaves her chaotic career and messy divorce behind to start over in Nashville. But the venture seems doomed from the start. Murray's taken his recipes and secret list of food suppliers to the grave with him, and ruthless real estate developer Royce Sinclair will stop at nothing to try and sandwich Murray's into his already overstuffed portfolio. Then, on Kosher Karaoke Night, longtime customer Buster Sergeant bites into his brisket...and bites the dust. The coroner says food poisoning, but Gwen's not convinced. Now, with the help of hunky police detective Beau McClintock, "Nashville Katz"—as Gwen is quickly nicknamed—will find herself adding "private investigator" to her resume—and a new love to her life.


The Fashion Police
(#1 in the Amber Fox mystery series)
by Sibel Hodge
BN.com | Amazon.com

When fashion designer, Umberto Fandango, goes missing, Amber becomes embroiled in a complicated case. But Amber's arch-enemy, Chief Inspector Skipper, is also investigating his disappearance, and it's a race against time for Amber to solve the mystery before Skipper does and get her old job back. And just when Amber thinks things can't get any worse, she's being stalked by some crazy mobsters.

Wickedly Charming
by Kristine Grayson
BN.com | Amazon.com

Cinderella's Prince Charming is divorced and at a dead-end in his career, so he opens a bookstore and travels the land ordering books and discovering new authors. Still handsome and still charming, he has given up on women, royalty, and anything that smacks of a future.

Mellie is sick and tired of being called the Evil Stepmother. She did her best by her stepdaughter Snow White, but the girl resented her to no end and made all kinds of false accusations.

Neither of them believes in happily ever after anymore, but both of them believe in happily for the moment...

Elvis and the Dearly Departed
(#1 in the Southern Cousins mystery series)
by Peggy Webb
BN.com | Amazon.com

Normally, Callie Valentine Jones spends her days fixing up the hairdos of the dead, but when the corpse of local, prominent physician Dr. Leonard Laton goes missing, it's bad for business. So Callie and her oversexed cousin Lovie (Eternal Rest's resident wake caterer) have no choice but to go in hot pursuit of the recently embalmed, last seen bound for Vegas by way of downtown Tupelo.

Now Elvis may be nothin' but a hound dog, but he knows a mystery when he smells one. But keeping his human mom from wandering off the trail isn't easy when she's back in the arms of her on-again, off-again ex, Jack. Not to mention the angry mourners squabbling over the estate of the late doctor inside the not-so-restful halls of Eternal Rest. Or the French poodle sniffing around for a hunk of Elvis' burning love.

In Vegas, Callie and Lovie hit the jackpot when they find the dearly departed inside a freezer owned by his showgirl mistress, Bubble Malone. But they're luck runs out when Bubble decides to join her man in the afterlife. With the poisonous Laton family tree providing plenty of rotten suspects, Callie's determined to crack this case-with a little help from that irresistible piece of man she used to call her husband-and have a killer singing "Jailhouse Rock" in time for her next haircutting appointment.

Skulduggery Pleasant: Scepter of the Ancients
(#1 in the Skulduggery Pleasant children's series)
by Derek Landy
BN.com | Amazon.com

Meet Skulduggery Pleasant:
Ace Detective Snappy Dresser Razor–tongued Wit Crackerjack Sorcerer and Walking, Talking, Fire-throwing Skeleton—as well as ally, protector, and mentor of Stephanie Edgley, a very unusual and darkly talented twelve-year-old. These two alone must defeat an all-consuming ancient evil.

The end of the world? Over his dead body.

Twelve-year-old Stephanie Edgley inherits her uncle Gordon's estate and is promptly attacked on her first solo visit to the property. A mysterious skeleton-detective, Skulduggery Pleasant, comes to her rescue, explaining that he thinks Gordon was murdered and that she may be next. The two join forces and set off to solve the crime in a series of magical adventures that take them into a world filled with ancient evil creatures, including Nefarian Serpine, who seeks the Scepter of the Ancients and the infinite power it will bring him.

The Weight of Blood
(#1 in The Half-Orcs series)
by David Dalglish
BN.com | Amazon.com

Harruq and Qurrah Tun, half-blood exiles of elves and orcs, have sworn their lives to the prophet of a death god, gaining power in return for igniting war between the race of elves and man. Harruq's love of an elf may save him from his dark path, but to protect her means he must turn against his brother and fight the killing nature with which he was born. No matter his decision, someone will die.


Griselda Takes Flight
(#3 in the Bright's Pond series)
by Joyce Magnin
BN.com | Amazon.com

Now that her morbidly obese sister, Agnes Sparrow, is comfortably dieting at the Greenbrier Nursing Home, Griselda learns to fly-literally-after a pilot makes an emergency landing and creates quite a ruckus in the otherwise sleepy town of Bright's Pond.

But Griselda's newfound freedom-and her flight time with handsome pilot, Cliff-is hampered by other happenings in town. Like the gold digger who prances around town and is supposedly engaged to Stella Kincaid's brother-the lottery winner who is in a coma. And there's Ivy Slocum's dog, Al Capone, whose adventures continue long after they should.

When Chief of Police Mildred Blessing starts investigating the gold digger, however, things really heat up-for Griselda and all the residents of the unique Pennsylvania hamlet called Bright's Pond!

Rain Song
by Alice J. Wisler
BN.com | Amazon.com

Nicole Michelin avoids airplanes, motorcycles, and most of all, Japan, where her parents once were missionaries. Something happened in Japan... something that sent Nicole and her father back to America alone... something of which Nicole knows only bits and pieces. But she is content with life in little Mount Olive, North Carolina, with her quirky relatives, tank of lively fish, and plenty of homemade pineapple chutney. Through her online column for the Pretty Fishy Web site, she meets Harrison Michaels, who, much to her dismay, lives in Japan. She attempts to avoid him, but his e-mails tug at her heart. Then Harrison reveals that he knew her as a child in Japan. In fact, he knows more about her childhood than she does...

Charlie Woodchuck is a Minor Niner
by Dalya Moon
BN.com | Amazon.com

It's 1988, and Charlie Woodchuck is the most minor of niners. At thirteen, she’s the youngest girl at Snowy Cove High School, and so clueless, she wore leg warmers and acid-wash jeans on her first day. Big mistake! Almost as big a mistake as signing up for a boys-only shop class. Doy.

Just when she thinks the first week of high school can’t get any more weird, Charlie discovers she may be adopted. According to her Science textbook, her eyes should be blue, not brown.

Now the girl with the boy’s name will have to use her detective skills to uncover the mystery of her identity. She'll need the help of best friend Stacy, expert blackmailer, and new friend Ross, expert class clown.

Before the year ends, Charlie will face down the biggest bullies of all: the all-powerful members of Snowy Cove’s School Board. The Board doesn't like what Charlie's been up to, and they're all out of doughnuts.

Bob Moore: No Hero
by Tom Andry
BN.com | Amazon.com

Super powered humans started appearing 30 years ago. Now, they are everywhere. Bob Moore, Private Eye, dares to investigate those who could incinerate him with a thought. When he is called to help a super from his past, however, he'll be pushed to his limit. When supers and the police think there is no crime, can he get to the truth? Will he want to for the man that destroyed his marriage?


Girls to the Rescue: Book #4
(#4 in the Girls to the Rescue series)
by Bruce Lansky
BN.com | Amazon.com

In most heroic tales, a helpless young lady waits around for a prince to rescue her. But the spunky girls in this entertaining series are much too busy saving the day to await Prince Charming. These adaptations and original stories from around the world inspire readers to become a new kind of heroine. If you enjoy the stories in this book, look for more fun adventures in the other books in the series.


Thanksgiving Cookbook
(Gooseberry Patch Cookbooklet #6)
by Gooseberry Patch
BN.com | Amazon.com

Get a taste of Gooseberry Patch in this collection of over 20 favorite Thanksgiving recipes! Thanksgiving celebrates the feast of all feasts with roast turkey & gravy, vanilla-glazed sweet potatoes, harvest apple cheese cake and more.


Prevention Healthy Favorites: Chicken Recipes
by the Editors of Prevention Magazine
BN.com | Amazon.com

Like good cooks everywhere, the editors of Prevention love nothing more than sharing their favorite healthy and delicious dishes. That's the whole idea behind the Prevention Healthy Favorites series of essential cookbooks, each one gathering 48 of the best Prevention-tested recipes that make it easy to whip up a great meal or tasty treat every time.
Chicken is one of the most versatile, tasty ingredients out there; it's the backbone of family menu-making. The challenge is making it flavorful and satisfying, not boring or packed with unhealthy ingredients.

At Prevention magazine, we do love rising to meet a challenge! So we focused this Prevention-tested recipe collection on fabulous flavor. Within these pages you'll find a great variety of tastes and textures, from Chicken and Portobello Mushroom Pasta Bake to Lime-Marinated Chicken with Salsa. You'll even discover some lovely twists on old favorites, including versions of Oven-Fried Buttermilk Chicken and Chicken-Spinach Parmesan, that are incredibly satisfying and unbelievably healthy for you and your whole family. Whatever your favorite taste combinations, all of our recipes were created to nourish both body and spirit and to be as simple as possible to prepare.

Competing in Tough Times
by Barry Berman
BN.com | Amazon.com

Competing in Tough Times brings together powerful new strategies that world-class retailers are using to thrive in today’s brutally unforgiving business environment.

World-renowned retail expert Dr. Barry Berman shows how to plan, build, and implement proven strategies based on both cost and differentiation. You’ll learn how to safely reduce costs and prices without increasing risk, minimize product proliferation, enhance the service experience, strengthen your private label program, and more. To support each approach, Berman presents full-length examples from outstanding retailers in every market sector, from consumer goods and apparel to technology.

Whether you’re a retail executive, owner, supplier, consultant, or student, these are the tools you need to compete, win—and keep on winning. In Competing in Tough Times, leading retail consultant Barry Berman systematically examines ten world-class retailers, identifying shared strategies that every retailer can use to drive dramatic, sustained performance improvement.

WTF? Work
by Gregory Bergman and Jodi Miller
BN.com | Amazon.com

As if your HR Department didn't have enough to worry about, WTF? is holding its own office orientation. From dealing with workplace politics and romancing coworkers to climbing the success ladder or getting canned, WTF? Work shows you how to handle the daily lows of holding down a j-o-b.

Moon: Maya 2012
(a Moon travel guide)
by Joshua Berman
BN.com | Amazon.com

December 21, 2012 is an important date for the Maya; it marks the end of the Long Count, a 5,125-year cycle of the Maya calendar, and the world’s transition into a new era. Some believe this transition will be peaceful; others warn it will be nothing short of explosive. But there's one thing everyone can agree on: Traveling to the Mundo Maya in the year 2012 is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—and it’s not to be missed.

Travelers to Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras in 2012 can expect a yearlong celebration of Maya culture, past and present—and Moon Maya 2012 is the guide to the best of these celebrations. From Palenque and Tulum to Tikal and Uaxactún, from Caracol to Copán, Central America expert Joshua Berman details the top offerings of each destination: Maya-themed sporting events and reenactments, ceremonies, dances, festivals, important archaeological sites, and more. Packed with strategies for planning a 2012 trip, lists of the organizations and tourism boards offering the best packages and tours, and easy-to-read maps to help you navigate your way through them all, Moon Maya 2012 gives travelers the tools they need to create a more personal and memorable experience.

Middle School Survival Kit: A Simun & Schuster Sampler
[various authors]
BN.com | Amazon.com

Middle school can be rough. Here are some excerpts that will help you through the school year! We've got chapters from Doctor Proctor's Fart Powder, The Unwanted, Return to Exile, City of Orphans, Waiting for the Magic, and Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King.


New Teen Voices: A Simon & Schuster Sampler
[various authors]
BN.com | Amazon.com

Tired of reading textbooks? We don't blame you. Take a break with these awesome samples from books by new authors like Elizabeth Miles, Lena Coakley, Michelle Hodkin, Jessica Martinez, Jeyn Roberts, and Emma Carlson Berne.


OMG: How I Created the Universe, Adam, and Steve
[Excerpted from The Last Testament]
by God (with David Javerbaum)
BN.com | Amazon.com

In the ultimate celebrity memoir, The Last Testament, the Lord our God, King of the Universe, is ready to telleth-all. In the meantime, enjoy this freebie from God, OMG: How I Created the Universe, Adam, and Steve, which contains the first five chapters on the Creation of Adam and Steve (you read correctly) excerpted from The Last Testament.


Clever John
by Elizabeth Hoyt
BN.com | Amazon.com

A delightful fairy tale from the New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Hoyt. Clever John gives readers an early glimpse inside Hoyt's next Maiden Lane novel, Scandalous Desires. Extended preview of Scandalous Desires included.

Barnes & Noble: nook

Dusk
by Ashanti Luke

In the year 2500, humanity has become so technologically advanced that overpopulation has led to an Earth too arrogant to acknowledge its own failures. With the Earth overpopulated and polluted, a group of twenty premier scientists must depart on a mission to explore Asha-a distant, uninhabited planet that may offer solutions to humanity's burgeoning problems. In reaching out to Asha to secure humanity's future, Dr. Cyrus Chamberlain and his fellow pioneers discover more about humanity's past than they could have ever imagined. But when they arrive at Asha, the scientists are brusquely greeted by a mysterious human military force that imprisons them with no explanation. They find that during their journey, a faster ship not only delivered humans to Asha, but those humans defeated Earth in an interplanetary civil war. With this war and the discovery of an inexplicable link to mankind's past, the team finds Asha holds more mysteries than answers.

Astrophysicist Cyrus Chamberlain is among those who left behind their old lives and risked everything on this journey. Unfortunately for Dr. Chamberlain, he finds that even if he survives the many challenges this new world holds for him, he may have already lost more than he ever imagined.

KK Undercover: The Cookie Caper
by Nicholas Stanton

Remember what it was like to see the world with the curious eyes of innocence? KK Undercover Mystery: The Cookie Caper is a remarkable tale that reminds us how cool it was to be a kid. The author’s lighthearted message of perseverance and loyalty appeals to people of all ages; you don’t have to be a kid to smile at these pages. The story will touch your heart.


Chin Yong-Yun Takes a Case
by S.J. Rozan

A short story by the Edgar-, Shamus-, and Anthony-winning author of Ghost Hero. In "Chin Yong-Yun Takes a Case," Lydia Chin's mother does some detecting of her own.


The Prague Cemetery: Free Sampler
by Umberto Eco

Nineteenth-century Europe-from Turin to Prague to Paris-abounds with the ghastly and the mysterious. Conspiracies rule history. Jesuits plot against Freemasons. Italian republicans strangle priests with their own intestines. French criminals plan bombings by day and celebrate Black Masses at night. Every nation has its own secret service, perpetrating forgeries, plots, and massacres. From the unification of Italy to the Paris Commune to the Dreyfus Affair to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion , Europe is in tumult and everyone needs a scapegoat. But what if, behind all of these conspiracies both real and imagined, lay one lone man? What if that evil genius created its most infamous document?

***
In this FREE SAMPLER CHAPTER OF UMBERTO ECO'S HIGHLY ANTICIPATED, CONTROVERSIAL NEW NOVEL, the evil genius Simonini-a man who is so crafty that his entire personality has split into two characters-recalls the night he participated in a black mass, after helping to stage a killing.

Brand Like a Rock Star: The Musical Companion
by Steve Jones

Take one step further into Brand Like a Rock Star's marketing wisdom with this soundtrack to your brand's success.

If you've had a chance to read Steve Jones's Brand Like a Rock Star, you've seen the striking link between some of the greatest bands in history and creating an unforgettable brand for your business.

This media guide will take you deeper into the rock 'n' roll lore and important marketing lessons behind the bands discussed in Brand Like a Rock Star. From the "buzz" culture of 1970s British punk to the Grateful Dead's early version of database marketing, Jones shows you how rock legends have pioneered some of the most effective branding strategies.

Author Steve Jones has earned his street cred as a savvy marketer with nearly thirty years of experience in an outrageous business. Each chapter offers a five-song playlist straight from his iPod that will have you rocking out as you learn how to improve your company's image and profits.

Amazon.com: Kindle

2:46 — Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake
[various artists]

In just over a week, a group of unpaid professional and citizen journalists who met on Twitter created a book to raise money for Japanese Red Cross earthquake and tsunami relief efforts. In addition to essays, artwork and photographs submitted by people around the world, including people who endured the disaster and journalists who covered it, 2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake contains a piece by Yoko Ono, and work created specifically for the book by authors William Gibson, Barry Eisler and Jake Adelstein.

“The primary goal,” says the book's editor, a British resident of Japan, “is to record the moment, and in doing so raise money for the Japanese Red Cross Society to help the thousands of homeless, hungry and cold survivors of the earthquake and tsunami. The biggest frustration for many of us was being unable to help these victims. I don’t have any medical skills, and I’m not a helicopter pilot, but I can edit. A few tweets pulled together nearly everything – all the participants, all the expertise – and in just over a week we had created a book including stories from an 80-year-old grandfather in Sendai, a couple in Canada waiting to hear if their relatives were okay, and a Japanese family who left their home, telling their young son they might never be able to return."

The Stolen Moon of Londor
(#1 in the White Shadow Saga)
by A.P. Stephens

The era of peace among the elves, men, and dwarves comes to an end when one of Londor's twin moons disappears from the heavens...Without the moon's balancing effect, evil forces grow bold, and warfare, sickness, and chaos threaten life itself.

Hearing the prayers of desperation that ride on the violent winds, the ancient wizard Randor Miithra, servant to the elf-gods, takes it upon himself to mend the world he has sworn to protect. The task will not be an easy one, though, for the wizard, too, has begun to feel the effects of the world's imbalance. As Randor struggles to maintain some semblance of his powers, he meets a secretive band of colorful characters from all walks of life, drawn together by a common goal: to find the stolen moon, whatever the cost. It does not take Randor and his motley company long to see that someone or something does not want the moon returned to the heavens.

The road is perilous...the stakes have never been greater...will they find victory…or will they only find their deaths?

The Written
(#1 in the Emaneska series)
by Ben Galley

His name is Farden. They whisper that he’s dangerous. Dangerous is only the half of it.

Something has gone missing from the libraries of Arfell. Something very old, and something very powerful. Five scholars are now dead, a country is once again on the brink of war, and the magick council is running out of time and options. Entangled in a web of lies and politics and dragged halfway across icy Emaneska and back, Farden must unearth a secret even he doesn’t want to know, a secret that will shake the foundations of his world. Dragons, drugs, magick, death, and the deepest of betrayals await.

Breathtakingly vast, chillingly dark, brooding and dangerous, The Written will leave you impatiently waiting for the next adventure...

Welcome to Emaneska.

Milking the Rhino: Dangerously Funny Lists
by Chris Rush

In Milking the Rhino, Rush uses a series of unforgettable surreal images to create hilarious verbal cartoons presented in a seductive list form to transport you into a world of nonstop laughter.

Lists include:
* Seven Examples of Truth in Advertising You Will Never See
* Twenty-Five Really Lousy Jobs
* The Ten Worst Pickup Lines
* Ten Bizarre Hobbies
* Fourteen Novelty Items That Never Took Off
* Four Things You Shouldn't Do in Zero-Gravity Conditions
* Four UFO Incidents That Are Weirder Than Usual


Legwork
(#1 in the Casey Jones mystery series)
by Katy Munger

LEGWORK is the debut novel in Katy Munger's hilarious and acclaimed Casey Jones Mystery series. Casey is a big, bad bottled blonde who takes no prisoners as she delves into cases for those who are marginalized on the outskirts of society. Set in North Carolina and the surrounding states, LEGWORK features a colorful cast, solid plot and writing that is both laugh out funny and very moving at times.

[AF's note: Despite the cover, this book appears to be a regular comedic mystery; the print editions had decidedly less risque covers than the current Kindle edition.]