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“Valente's latest novel contains the richness and inscrutability of fable and allegory, infusing her storytelling with a lyrical intensity reminiscent of the literature of India and the Middle East.”
– Library Journal
This week’s Free Fridays title, The Habitation of the Blessed by Catherynne M. Valente, is a fascinating twist on the Prester John legend. For those unfamiliar with the story, Prester John was said to have ruled over an ancient utopia, inspiring hundreds of explorers to seek out his lost kingdom.
In The Habitation of the Blessed, Valente re-imagines this stunning community, presenting a spellbinding world that will capture your imagination in the same way the original legend captivated Medieval daydreamers. Set in 1699, a missionary stumbles on this fabled Eastern kingdom, finding many of the splendors it promised—the fountain of youth and a tree that produces books instead of fruit—but even more unexpected secrets await. It's soon clear that even the most magical place on Earth has a dark side.
Readers who enjoy escaping to a mystical land in the pages of a book will be enthralled by Valente’s tale. The Prester John series continues this fall with The Folded World.
Free Fridays Recommends
Each week, we ask our featured author to recommend a book or author that you may want to check out. Since authors are such passionate readers themselves, we thought you might like to find out what they love to read, too! Here’s what Catherynne recommends:
Little, Big is my favorite novel of all time. Not only because the ending makes me laugh and cry all at once, or because the writing is sheer cut-glass perfection at the sentence level all the way to the overall structure of the novel. Also because of its madcap premise--I often tell people it is a gently post-apocalyptic (or maybe apocalypse in media res) Midsummer Night's Dream. Yes, it has fairies in it. Yes, Frederick Barbarossa comes back to life and runs for President. Yet it is hugely personal and wise and never flippant about its wild plot, its observations about love and family are never trite but always affecting, sometimes painfully so. When I first read it, I thought to myself: I will never write anything this good if I live to be 100. And that's ok. It is a novel that moves and shakes and thunders and whispers. I wish everyone would read it. It is a high and beautiful expression of what fantasy can achieve.
NOOK owners: go to shop and search for “Catherynne Valente” to download her many excellent novels.
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Here's additional freebies, a.k.a Free Friday's Extras, that many good people found and shared since last Friday. These are only the new freebies that showed up since last Friday - a lot of previous Fridays' freebies are still free. As usual all the books were free at the time of submitting this post, please verify the price before clicking Buy.
Women Sleuths
Blood Country by Mary Logue
Sports
Bruin Redemption by Alan Hahn
Science Fiction
Grace Immaculate by Gregory Benford
Science
Building Data Science Teams by DJ Patil
PCAT Prep for the New CBT by Kaplan
Chips, Clones, and Living Beyond 100 by Schoemaker&Schoemaker (not the ones of the comet fame)
Romance
Christina's Tapestry by N.J. Walters
The Big 5-OH! by Sandra D Bricker
Religious Fiction
One Imperfect Christmas by Myra Johnson
Mystery & Thrillers
The Lord Is My Shepherd by Debbie Viguie
Health, Mind & Body
101 Ways to Find a Ghost by Melissa Martin Ellis
The Rules of Life by Richard Templar
The Case of the Unwanted Pounds by Fred Stutman
Erotica
Lyric's Cop by Jory Strong
Education
Kaplan New GRE by Kaplan
Cookbook
Cookie Swap Cookbook by Gooseberry Patch
Computers & Internet
Big Data Now by O'Reilly Team
The Evolution of Data Products by Mike Loukides
What Is HTML5? by Brett McLaughlin
What Is Node? by Brett McLaughlin
HTML5 for Publishers by Sanders Kleinfeld
Children's
Kidz Bop by Kimberly Potts
Business
Club College by Andrew S Rosen
Harvard Envy by Andrew S Rosen
Presentations in Action by Jerry Weissman
Truth About Managing Effectively by Fyock, Finney, Robbins
From Lemons to Lemonade by Dean A. Shepherd
Suspence
The Sentinels by Gordon Zuckerman
Please laurel this post if the list is useful to you.
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I wake up thinking "Oh Boy! It's Friday - Free Book Day!" The Nook Color continues to bring joy to my life. Glad to have the freebies for those upcoming long dark winter nights. My Nook and a cuppa ought to leave me all warm and cozy.
Thanks again Spec, you always come up with great offerings.
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I agree with Ero-Ashima. Free book Friday is a great day! I have a lot of books on my NOOK Color and most of them were free. I do, of course, have many I bought and I have read more since I bought my NOOK than I have in a long time. This is one of my favorite purchases of all time. I LOVE my NOOK!
Thanks for Free Fridays and the extras!!!
Barbara
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Wake up, everybody! It's Friday, Friday, Friday - FREE Friday!
Jeremy does it again!
Spec does it again!
B&N rocks!!!
Oh, and thank you so much, too. 
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To repeat the refrain, I LOVE MY NOOK! My daughtr and son-in-law gave me the classic for my birthday in 2010 and it is the best gift I have ever received. Not only do I get gret books from Barnes and Noble but it interfaces with my local public library. I have been a reader of all kinds of things (one of those who read the cereal boxes at breakfast when I was a kid) to always having a book near at hand all the time. The Nook is so much more convenient and easy to transport. And, I never lay it down and forget it. Joanne in San Antonio
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Love Free Friday's and Love my simple touch Nook. I love to read and prefer the Nook to paper books.
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I agree I love Fridays ! After I check out these posts I send off the title of the Free Friday book and any other freebies to the people in HR who have Nooks. It drives the Kobo and Kindle people crazy. They have started checking out their websites to see if they have it free too. Shame shame ! should have bought a Nookcolor !
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I just LOVE free Fridays!!! It is the best day of the week!! Thanks to B&N and all they do. I love my Nook Color I got for my birthday! This is absolutely one of the best investments I made this year!!
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Thanks, Spec. I love the lists you put together every week. Even if I am not interested in the Free Friday book I always come to check your list and end up with at least a couple I am excited about.
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When my hubby left for work he said "Thank goodness it is Friday" I replied "Yes!!! Free Friday" He looked at me and smiled and said "Have fun". I did buy a book today but now I'm looking over the list.
Thanks Spec!!!
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This week's selection isn't exactly my thing, but how cool that we get such a vast array of genres to choose from. I was also thinking the Friday before Halloween, it might be a horror book. But, hey, it's free! Thanks, B&N. And, thanks again, Spec for your list!
Happy Halloween, everyone, and have a great weekend!
Alicia Dean
Only 2.99 on the Nook and Kindle....
Death Notice by Alicia Dean
Suspense with romantic elements
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I really like Free Fridays, too. But I especially want to thank Spec for the list. Even though I monitor The Cheap intermittently, seems like I miss things. The genre classification really helps -- I think some of the titles fool me.
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Here's a couple of Horror selections that I found for those of us in the mood for Halloween!
I'm going to give all three a read. Hope they're as good as the reviewers say!
Cheers,
Ker
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