• AUDIBLE Deal of the Day 🎧 This Is Your Brain on Parasites

    A new deal every day from Audible. Today’s deal ends 05/31/2018 @ 11:59PM PT.

    This Is Your Brain on Parasites: How Tiny Creatures Manipulate Our Behavior and Shape SocietyThis Is Your Brain on Parasites: How Tiny Creatures Manipulate Our Behavior and Shape Society
    by Kathleen McAuliffe

    A riveting investigation of the myriad ways that parasites control how other creatures – including humans – think, feel, and act.

    These tiny organisms can live only inside another animal, and, as McAuliffe reveals, they have many evolutionary motives for manipulating their host’s behavior. Far more often than appreciated, these puppeteers orchestrate the interplay between predator and prey. With astonishing precision, parasites can coax rats to approach cats, spiders to transform the patterns of their webs, and fish to draw the attention of birds that then swoop down to feast on them.

    We humans are hardly immune to the profound influence of parasites. Organisms we pick up from our own pets are strongly suspected of changing our personality traits and contributing to recklessness, impulsivity – even suicide. Microbes in our gut affect our emotions and the very wiring of our brains. Germs that cause colds and flu may alter our behavior even before symptoms become apparent.

    Parasites influence our species on the cultural level, too. As McAuliffe documents, a subconscious fear of contagion impacts virtually every aspect of our lives, from our sexual attractions and social circles to our morals and political views. Drawing on a huge body of research, she argues that our dread of contamination is an evolved defense against parasites – and a double-edged sword. The horror and revulsion we feel when we come in contact with people who appear diseased or dirty helped pave the way for civilization but may also be the basis for major divisions in societies that persist to this day.

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  • Book of the Day: Cotillion

    Cotillion (Regency Romances)Cotillion (Regency Romances)
    by Georgette Heyer

    Over 200 5-Star Reviews!

    Almost an heiress

    Country-bred, spirited Kitty Charings is on the brink of inheriting a fortune from her eccentric guardian – provided that she marries one of his grand-nephews. Kitty has spent her secluded life pining for the handsome, rakish Jack, who is well aware of her attachment.

    A plan of her own

    But when Jack fails to respond to his great–uncle’s ultimatum, Kitty hatches a strategy of her own – a counterfeit betrothal to mild–mannered Freddy Standen (who neither needs nor wants the money).

    A most unlikely hero

    And when Kitty’s generous heart leads to all sorts of unintended troubles, there is only one man who can rescue her from more than one dreadful fix, pick up the pieces of her plotting and in the process her heart…

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  • Wednesday’s Free & Bargain Kindle Book Deals

    Humor, Nonfiction, Romance, Action & Adventure, Suspense, Romantic Suspense, Mystery, Thriller… today’s featured books have a little something for everyone!

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    The Hating Game: A Novel Debut author Sally Thorne bursts on the scene with a hilarious and sexy workplace comedy all about that thin, fine line between hate and love.

    Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman hate each other. Not dislike. Not begrudgingly tolerate. Hate. And they have no problem displaying their feelings through a series of ritualistic passive aggressive maneuvers as they sit across from each other, executive assistants to co-CEOs of a publishing company. Lucy can’t understand Joshua’s joyless, uptight, meticulous approach to his job. Joshua is clearly baffled by Lucy’s overly bright clothes, quirkiness, and Pollyanna attitude.

    Now up for the same promotion, their battle of wills has come to a head and Lucy refuses to back down when their latest game could cost her her dream job
But the tension between Lucy and Joshua has also reached its boiling point, and Lucy is discovering that maybe she doesn’t hate Joshua. And maybe, he doesn’t hate her either. Or maybe this is just another game.

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    The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory Over 100 5-Star Reviews!

    "An utterly satisfying examination of the business of popular music." —Nathaniel Rich, The Atlantic

    There’s a reason today’s ubiquitous pop hits are so hard to ignore—they’re designed that way.

    The Song Machine goes behind the scenes to offer an insider’s look at the global hit factories manufacturing the songs that have everyone hooked. Full of vivid, unexpected characters—alongside industry heavy-hitters like Katy Perry, Rihanna, Max Martin, and Ester Dean—this fascinating journey into the strange world of pop music reveals how a new approach to crafting smash hits is transforming marketing, technology, and even listeners’ brains. You’ll never think about music the same way again.

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    Evelyn, After: A Novel Over 1,200 5-Star Reviews!

    Evelyn Tester is sleepwalking through her suburban life—until a late-night phone call startles her awake. Her husband, a prestigious psychiatrist, has been in an accident. And he isn’t alone.

    Suddenly Evelyn’s world isn’t as tidy as she thought. And in the midst of it all is Juliette, not only her husband’s secret lover but also his patient. If news of the affair were to get out, it would ruin more than just Evelyn’s marriage. Although it’s a bitter pill for Evelyn to swallow, protecting her family means staying silent—even if, as she begins to discover, the night of the accident has consequences far more dangerous than the unmasking of an affair.

    But the more Evelyn learns about Juliette’s picture-perfect life—complete with a handsome, unsuspecting husband—the more she yearns for revenge… and satisfaction. Her growing obsession fuels her rage, burning away her complacency. What will be left of her after it flames out?

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    Sacred Stone (The Oregon Files Book 2) Juan Cabrillo and his CIA-backed Oregon crew must beat opposing factions to a discovery that could prevent World War III in this novel in the #1 New York Times-bestselling series.

    In the remote wastes of Greenland, a young scientist has unearthed an artifact hidden in a cave for a millennium: a 50,000 year-old radioactive meteorite known as the Sacred Stone. But the astounding find places him in the crosshairs of two opposing groups who seek the stone for themselves.
     
    One is a group of Muslim extremists who have stolen a nuclear device. With the power of the meteorite, they could vaporize any city in the west. The other group is led by a megalomaniacal industrialist who seeks to carry out the utter annihilation of Islam itself.
     
    Caught between two militant factions bent on wholesale slaughter, Juan Cabrillo and his crew must fight to protect the scientist and the Sacred Stone—and prevent the outbreak of World War III…

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    Seduced by Madness She was fifteen when she visited the therapist; still a teen when they had sex. She was twenty-five when she married him and forty-four when she killed him.

    In October 2002, the quiet northern California town of Orinda was rocked by murder when Susan Polk, the mother of three teenage boys, was arrested for stabbing her husband and former therapist, Dr. Felix Polk, to death. The arrest and subsequent trial quickly became one of the most talked about murder cases in the country, as spectators and reporters learned the strange history behind this shocking killing.

    Now in Seduced by Madness, Carol Pogash—the leading journalist working the case—has written the definitive account of the Polk family saga, offering a rich and textured re-creation of this disturbing and tragic American tale.

    Filled with the most complete case facts and interviews available, Seduced by Madness offers an unparalleled look at one of the most captivating murder cases in recent years.

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    Beyond Danger (The Texas Trilogy) New York Times bestselling author Kat Martin brings page-turning suspense to a tale of secrets and passions turned deadly…

    Texas mogul Beau Reese is furious. All six feet three obscenely wealthy, good-looking inches of him. His sixty-year-old father, Stewart, a former state senator no less, has impregnated a teenager. Barely able to contain his anger, Beau is in for another surprise. It appears that Stewart has moved an entirely different woman into the house…
     
    Beau assumes that stunning Cassidy Jones is his father’s mistress. At least she’s of age. But those concerns take a sudden backseat when he finds Stewart in a pool of blood on the floor of his study—and Cassidy walks in to find Beau with his hand on the murder weapon.
     
    The shocks just keep coming. Someone was following Stewart, and Cassidy is the detective hired to find out who and why. Now she’ll have to find his killer instead. Her gut tells her it wasn’t Beau. And Beau’s instincts tell him it wasn’t Cassidy.

    Determined to track down the truth, they form an uneasy alliance—one that will bring them closer to each other—closer to danger and beyond…

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    Midnight Secrets: The Wildefire Series For fans of Maya Banks, Allison Brennan, and Lori Foster, a thrilling new romantic suspense novel from Ella Grace

    AT THE STROKE OF MIDNIGHT, THE HEAT BEGINS
     
    On a hot southern night, with a storm on the horizon, a family is shattered. Three beautiful daughters—Savannah, Samantha, and Sabrina Wilde—go on with their lives, each significantly changed, as they bear the memory of the murder-suicide that killed their parents. For years, they have stayed away from Midnight, Alabama. Until Midnight calls them home.
     
    Savannah is the first one back, when a grueling case in Nashville leads the young prosecutor to seek shelter in the quiet of the once grand Wilde mansion. But when she finds letters casting doubt on her family’s dark, shameful past, she realizes that peace in Midnight is a shallow façade and sinister secrets lurk beneath the surface. Zach Tanner, once the town’s bad boy, is now the new police chief and still has a wild hold over her. Zach can feel it, too, but he hurt Savannah once. As teenagers, they broke every rule together. Now it’s his job to keep her safe, even though he isn’t sure who her enemies are—or which ones might be his own.

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    The Moonglow Cafe New York reporter Paige MacKenzie has a hidden motive when she heads to the small town of Timberton, Montana. Assigned to research the area’s unique Yogo sapphires for the Manhattan Post, she hopes to reconnect romantically with handsome cowboy Jake Norris. The local gem gallery offers the material needed for the article, but the discovery of an old diary, hidden inside the wall of a historic hotel, soon sends her on a detour into the underworld of art and deception.

    Each of the town’s residents holds a key to untangling more than one long-buried secret, from the hippie chick owner of a new age cafĂ© to the mute homeless man in the town park. As the worlds of western art and sapphire mining collide, Paige finds herself juggling research, romance and danger. With stolen sapphires and shady characters thrown into the mix, will Paige escape the consequences of her own curiosity?

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    Licensed to Thrill 1: Hunt For Jack Reacher Series Thrillers Books 1-3 (Diane Capri’s Licensed to Thrill Sets) “Intricate and Ingenious. Make some coffee. You’ll read all night.” — Lee Child

    Licensed to Thrill 1 contains the first 3 Hunt for Jack Reacher thrillers from USA Today and New York Times Bestselling Author Diane Capri

    It’s been a while since we first met Lee Child’s Jack Reacher in Killing Floor. Fifteen years later, Reacher still lives off the grid, until trouble finds him, and then he does whatever it takes, much to the delight of readers and the dismay of villains.

    Now someone big is looking for him. Who? And why?

    Hunting Jack Reacher is a dangerous business, as FBI Special Agents Kim Otto and Carlos Gaspar are about to find out. By-the-book hunters who know when it’s necessary to break the rules, but they Don’t Know Jack. Is he friend or enemy? Only the secrets hidden in Margrave, Georgia will tell them.

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