[ATDrake]

For some reason, there are a lot of interesting-looking biographies on sale this month. I think the ones from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (couponable/VIP-eligible in Canada but not the US) probably expire at the end, and the ones from HarperCollins are always rotated on an unfathomable sporadic schedule.

@ $1.99 from HarperCollins:

• The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America by Douglas Brinkley, about the US president's nature conservation efforts
• Possessed: The Life of Joan Crawford by Donald Spoto, about the classic Hollywood actress
• The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography by award-winning classic actor Sidney Poitier (Wikipedia)
• Just Kids by Patti Smith (Wikipedia), a memoir by the highly-influential rock musician
• Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?: A Rock 'n' Roll Memoir by Steven Tyler of Aerosmith
• Devil at My Heels: A Heroic Olympian's Astonishing Story of Survival as a Japanese POW in World War II by the late Louis Zamperini (Wikipedia) whose story was the inspiration for the film Unbroken
• Tales of Wonder: Adventures Chasing the Divine, an Autobiography by the late Huston Smith (Wikipedia) who apparently wrote one of the classic comparative religions texts which is still in use in universities today, and is incidentally also on sale as:
• The World's Religions, Revised and Updated: A Concise Introduction by Huston Smith; preface says this is a 40th anniversary edition (circa 1992)

Also in terms of comparative religion from HC @ $1.99:

• The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying: The Spiritual Classic & International Bestseller: Revised and Updated Edition by Sogyal Rinpoche, which quotes praise in its blurb from Smith
• God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World--and Why Their Differences Matter & Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know--And Doesn't by Boston University professor Stephen Prothero (Wikipedia), and again, Huston Smith is invoked in the blurb
• The Great Divorce by the late C. S. Lewis of Narnia fame, who is public domain in Canada but not the US, IIRC

@ $1.99-$2.99 from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (Canadian prices start at $2.99, US price varies per book):

• J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter. This is US-only, as HarperCollins has the rights in Canada and prices it around $12 CAD.
• Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" by Corey Olsen, some kind of chapter by chapter guide cum literary criticism. There's also a freebie (not available in Canada) Reader and Educator Guide to "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings"
• The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman by Nancy Marie Brown, about Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir (Wikipedia), an early Vinland settler who, among other things, gave birth to the first European child born in the North Americas, and apparently made a pilgrimage to Rome in her old age. I bought this during a previous sale last year, and what I've read of it is actually pretty interesting, mixing archaeological reconstructions as well as literary analysis to show how the world she lived in functioned and how she developed a strength of character that ended up doing her numerous deeds.
• Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis by Kim Todd, about the 17th century German naturalist and scientific illustrator (Wikipedia)
• The Tigress of Forli: Renaissance Italy's Most Courageous and Notorious Countess, Caterina Riario Sforza de' Medici by Elizabeth Lev, for the 15th century figure whose Badass of the Week entry (warning for language) probably can't be topped as an introduction to who she was and what she accomplished
• The Boy Who Played with Fusion: Extreme Science, Extreme Parenting, and How to Make a Star by Tom Clynes about child prodigy turned nuclear physicist Taylor Wilson (Wikipedia). Blurb says this is a 2016 PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award Finalist.
• The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero by National Book Award winner Timothy Egan (Wikipedia) about colourful 19th century figure Thomas Francis Meagher (Wikipedia)
• The Creation of Anne Boleyn: A New Look at England's Most Notorious Queen by feminist philosopher Susan Bordo (Wikipedia) of the University of Kentucky, which looks like it takes an interesting approach, as much an historiography of Anne Boleyn biographies as one in itself

Not a biography, but this also looked interesting @ $2.99 from HMH:

Braving Home: Dispatches from the Underwater Town, the Lava-Side Inn, and Other Extreme Locales by Jake Halpern (Wikipedia), about people who chose to remain in extreme and pretty much abandoned environments