Topping today’s Buffet is an illustrated edition of the complete tales and poems of Edgar Allan Poe. It normally costs $2.99 but is free today.
Poe (1809 – 1849) was an American author, poet, editor, and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, he was an early practitioner of the short story and is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. Poe was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone.
Born in Boston, Poe was orphaned at a young age when his mother died shortly after his father abandoned the family. He was taken in by John and Frances Allan, of Richmond, Virginia, and he attended the University of Virginia for one semester but left due to lack of money. After enlisting in the Army and later failing as an officer’s cadet at West Point, Poe parted ways with the Allans. His publishing career began humbly, with an anonymous collection of poems, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), credited only to “a Bostonian.”
Poe married his 13-year old cousin, Virginia Clemm, and her early death may have inspired some of his writing.
As usual, each book listed here has gone FREE within the past 24 hours, except for the Bargain books in the yellow section below. Warning: Kindle book promotions can end without notice, so before downloading click the link “See Kindle price at Amazon” to verify that the book is still free. (Prices and availability may differ outside USA.)
Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems (Illustrated)
Poetry & Fiction > Classics > Anthologies & Collections
Author: Edgar Allan Poe, Gustave Doré, Harry Clarke, Edmund Dulac
This illustrated edition of the COMPLETE TALES & POEMS of Edgar Allan Poe features 157 works by Poe, including all of his short stories and poems.
69 Tales, including:
• The Tell-Tale Heart
• The Murders in the Rue Morgue
• The Fall of the House of Usher
• The Masque of the Red Death
• The Pit and the Pendulum
• The Purloined Letter
• The Black Cat
• Hop-Frog
• The Cask of Amontillado
74 Poems, including:
• The Raven
• The Conqueror Worm
• The Bells
• Tamerlane
• Al Aaraaf
• Lenore
• Eldorado
• Annabel Lee
In addition:
• Poe’s only complete novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym
• His incomplete novel, The Journal of Julius Rodman
• His unfinished tragedy in verse, Politian
• 11 significant essays & sketches
Also featuring:
• More than 90 large illustrations from Gustave Doré, Harry Clarke, Edmund Dulac, and others
• Annotated translations of passages in French, Latin, Greek and other foreign languages, along with Poe’s own notes
• Alphabetical title index and detailed author biography
Whether you are new to Edgar Allan Poe or a student of his work, this illustrated/annotated edition is a must-have for your Kindle library.
Her Daughter’s Eyes
Contemporary Fiction > Women’s Fiction
Author: Jessica Barksdale Inclan
- $2.99 List Price
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What do you do when you have a secret so big you can’t tell a soul, not even your sister. Kate Phillips has a secret this big, and only when she is forced to, does she tell her sister Tyler–but then no one else. Not a soul. Until it is almost too late.
Her Daughter’s Eyes is a novel about this secret and then about how the two sisters, their family, and their neighbors learn to live with it. A story of decisions made–for better or worse–and promises kept. A story about two teen-aged sisters who are able to navigate an adult world in a way they never thought possible.
Nailed
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Author: Joseph Flynn
- $2.99 List Price
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Ron Ketchum saw his share of the dark side of life as a cop in Los Angeles. Then he left L.A. to become the chief of police in the Sierra Nevada resort town of Goldstrike. One sunny morning in the mountains, though, he comes upon a crime unlike anything he’s ever seen before. He finds the body of an African American man nailed to a tree.
The victim is a highly respected minister, and his father is the nationally known televangelist Jimmy Thunder. Ron, on the other hand, has described himself in court as a recovering bigot.
Goldstrike’s mayor for life and movie icon, Clay Steadman, wants Ron to catch the killer fast. Adding to the pressure, the victim’s grandmother comes to town. She tells the media mob that has descended on Goldstrike that God will curse the town until the killer is caught. That’s when a rogue mountain lion begins attacking people. At first, the attacks happen on the wilderness outskirts of Goldstrike. Then the predator moves into town, leaping a fence into a family’s backyard.
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Sweet Karoline
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Author: Catherine Astolfo
If I knew what I know now, would I have searched so hard for the truth?
Anne Williams says she killed her best friend, Karoline. But did she? Or is there more to Karoline’s mysterious death than meets the eye?
Anne embarks on a compelling journey to discover her past and exposes an unusual history, horrific crimes and appalling betrayals. Through unexpected turns and revelations, Anne learns about love, family and who she really is. Can she survive the truth?
Rise of the Dibor
Religious & Inspirational Fiction > Science Fiction & Fantasy
Author: Christopher Hopper
The Dairne-Reih haven’t been seen in Dionia for generations—their kind and their king, Morgui, banished long ago from haunting paradise. But when creation shows signs of deterioration, the kings of the seven realms converge in the sacred Gvindollion gathering to arrive at one inexplicable conclusion: Morgui has returned. In the hopes of entrusting Dionia’s brave history and perilous future to a generation that has never known war, the kings decide to raise up their young sons as an elite group of warriors, known only as the Dibor.
Gorn, legendary hero of the First Battle, is commissioned to teach the Dibor the art of war, leading them on a four-year adventure on the Isle of Kirstell. It is Luik, son of Lair, who soon emerges as the warband’s spirited front man.
There is little time for the Dibor to enjoy the satisfaction of graduation, however, as a sinister plot is discovered to dethrone Dionia’s kings and flatten the capital city of Adriel.
Dear Bob and Sue
Travel > Essays & Travelogues
Author: Matt Smith, Karen Smith
Chronicles the journey of Matt and Karen Smith, who took a mid-career break to travel to all 59 U.S. National Parks. Written as a series of emails to their friends, Bob and Sue, this is one couple’s perspective on the joys and challenges of traveling together. The next best thing to visiting all the parks in person.
Elly In Bloom
Contemporary Fiction > Romance
Author: Colleen Oakes
Surrounded by lush flowers and neurotic brides, chubby 32-year old Elly Jordan has carved out a sweet little life for herself as the owner of Posies, a boutique wedding florist in St. Louis. It’s not bad for a woman who drove away from her entire life just two years ago when she found her husband entwined with a red-headed artist.
Sure, Elly has an embarrassingly beautiful best friend, a terribly behaved sheepdog and a sarcastic assistant who she simply calls “Snarky Teenager”, but overall her days are pleasantly uneventful. As a bonus, her new next door neighbor just happens to be an unnervingly handsome musician who has an eye for curvy Elly. Just when she feels that she is finally moving on from her past, she discovers that an extravagant wedding contract, one that could change her financial future, is more than she bargained for.
Raising Abel
Memoirs > Parenting & Relationships > Adoption
Author: Carolyn Nash
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At 38, Carolyn Nash had a good job, no apparent struggles and few conscious regrets—save, perhaps, her weight and her childlessness. She remedies the latter by fostering and then adopting 3-year-old Abel, a victim of unspeakable parental abuse, most of it sexual. The consequences are predictable and agonizing. Abel is charmingly innocent yet uncontrollably violent, and as he grows, so do his PTSD symptoms. He refuses to bathe, he fails in school. Thrown toys become thrown punches, then smashed windshields.
Psychiatrists are consulted, police called. Special education, home-schooling, hospitalizations, meds—all resources are tried and exhausted. Yet Nash remains indefatigable. Through the lens of Abel’s trauma, Nash peers into her own nightmares—she too feels deformed and unlovable—and learns their sick source.
Our Favorite Halloween Recipes Cookbook
Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Seasonal
Author: Gooseberry Patch
Regular Price $5.99, Today $0.49
Over 60 frightfully fun recipes & as many tips. Purse-friendly size make meal-planning on the go easy.
Jack-‘O-Lanterns, hayrides and a big harvest moon…it must be Halloween! Here you’ll find lots of tasty treats that aren’t tricky at all.
Whip up ghostly goodies like Scaredy Cat Cupcakes and Fudge Fingers for classroom parties. Welcome the little beggars in the neighborhood with Homemade Doughnuts and Bubblin’ Berry Brew. Spider Pizza, Sloppy Goblins and Midnight Chocolate Cake are sure to make your next Halloween party a howling success…you’ll find lots of spooktacular serving and decorating tips too.
Oxygen: A Novel
Women’s Fiction > Single Women
Author: Carol Cassella
Regular Price $9.99, Today $1.99
Dr. Marie Heaton is an anesthesiologist at the height of her profession. She has worked, lived and breathed her career since medical school, and she now practices at a top Seattle hospital. Marie has carefully constructed and constricted her life according to empirical truths, to the science and art of medicine. But when her tried-and-true formula suddenly deserts her during a routine surgery, she must explain the nightmarish operating room disaster and face the resulting malpractice suit. Marie’s best friend, colleague and former lover, Dr. Joe Hillary, becomes her closest confidante as she twists through depositions, accusations and a remorseful preoccupation with the mother of the patient in question. As she struggles to salvage her career and reputation, Marie must face hard truths about the path she’s chosen, the bridges she’s burned and the colleagues and superiors she’s mistaken for friends.
A quieter crisis is simultaneously unfolding within Marie’s family. Her aging father is losing his sight and approaching an awkward dependency on Marie and her sister, Lori. But Lori has taken a more traditional path than Marie and is busy raising a family. Although Marie has been estranged from her Texas roots for decades, the ultimate responsibility for their father’s care is falling on her.
As her carefully structured life begins to collapse, Marie confronts questions of love and betrayal, family bonds and the price of her own choices. Set against the natural splendor of Seattle, and inside the closed vaults of hospital operating rooms, Oxygen climaxes in a final twist that is as heartrending as it is redeeming.
How Bad Are Bananas?: The Carbon Footprint of Everything
Environmental Science > Sustainable Living
Author: Mike Berners-Lee
Regular Price $14.00, Today $0.99
The first book to provide the information we need to make carbon-savvy purchases and informed lifestyle choices and to build carbon considerations into our everyday thinking. Puts our decisions into perspective with entries for the big things (the World Cup, volcanic eruptions, the Iraq war) as well as the small (email, ironing, a glass of beer). And it covers the range from birth (the carbon footprint of having a child) to death (the carbon impact of cremation).
Packed full of surprises — a plastic bag has the smallest footprint of any item listed, while a block of cheese is bad news — the book continuously informs, delights, and engages the reader. Solidly researched and referenced, the easily digestible figures, statistics, charts, and graphs (including a section on the carbon footprint of various foods) will encourage discussion and help people to make up their own minds about their consumer choices.
The Status Civilization (Prologue Science Fiction)
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Author: Robert Sheckley
Regular Price $3.99, Today $0.99
“Yes sir. Well, there are three men outside trying to kill me….”
“Quite right,” Mr. Frendlyer said. “And today is Landing Day. You came off the ship that landed today, and have been classified a peon…. I’m happy to say that everything is in order. The Landing Day Hunt ends at sundown. You can leave here with the knowledge that everything is correct and that your rights have not been violated.”
“Leave here? After sundown, you mean.”
Mr. Frendlyer shook his head and smiled sadly. “I’m afraid not. According to the law you must leave here at once.”
“But they’ll kill me!”
“That’s very true. Unfortunately it can’t be helped. A victim by definition is one who is to be killed…. We protect rights, not victims.”
Omega: Prison planet
Life Expectancy: Three years maximum
Most people are luckier than that….
Saltwater Taffy
Children’s eBooks > Action & Adventure
Author: Eric DelaBarre, R.C. Nason
Regular Price $15.95, Today $1.99
- $15.95 List Price
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Endorsed by Teachers of the Year around the country, Eric DelaBarre’s Saltwater Taffy follows the lives of five friends as they uncover a treasure map that once belonged to the ruthless New Orleans pirate, Jean Lafitte. The discovery thrusts them from one treasure hunting adventure to the next as they try to out-wit, out-think and out-maneuver everyone from the one-legged junk-yard man and an overbearing town bully, to the creepy old man living at the top of the hill. Saltwater Taffy is a raceto-the-finish adventure that grabs the reader and never lets go.
Sniper Elite: One-Way Trip
Men’s Adventure > War
Author: Scott McEwen, Thomas Koloniar
Regular Price $9.99, Today $2.99
From the coauthor of Chris Kyle’s #1 New York Times bestseller, American Sniper: In direct defiance of the president’s orders, Navy Master Chief Gil Shannon, one of America’s most lethal SEAL snipers, launches a bold mission comprised of SEAL Team Six and Delta Force fighters to free a captured female helicopter pilot being held by Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.
The president is afraid a botched rescue could jeopardize US foreign policy as well as end his presidency. But once the special ops community learns that one of their own—the first female helicopter pilot of the Army’s elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR)—is being held and brutally mistreated, there is no executive order strong enough to stop them from attempting to rescue her.
This fast-paced, action-packed thriller with incredibly realistic and blistering battles introduces a new American hero, Gil Shannon, whose iron will and expertise with the .308 Remington Modular sniper rifle will spell the difference between freedom and an ignoble death for America’s female POW.
… See the rest of today’s Editor’s Picks here on page 2