FREE/BARGAIN - Non-Fiction - 2016

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by avantman42

They Fought Alone: The True Story of SOE's Agents in Wartime France

This is 99p at Amazon, £4.79 at Kobo (Kobo says list price is £5.99), $10.99 at B&N.

Amazon.com/Amazon UK

In case you want to pay the extra, or see if the price has gone down: Kobo, B&N

Description:

It's got a respectable 3.70 average rating from a total of 40 ratings, at GoodReads.

I read a book on the OSS (Office of Strategic Services), the American equivalent of the SOE, a few years ago, and it was fascinating. I'm sure that this one on the SOE would be, too, given the similarity of their work and missions.

Wish it were cheaper, though. I'll have to wait to grab it if and when it comes down in price.

Thanks.

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

Wish it were cheaper, though. I'll have to wait to grab it if and when it comes down in price.

Why, can't you get it from Amazon? Or is it full price on amazon.com? I'm in the UK, so I don't see the real price on the .com site.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by avantman42

Why, can't you get it from Amazon? Or is it full price on amazon.com? I'm in the UK, so I don't see the real price on the .com site.

It's $9.59 in the US

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

It's $9.59 in the US

Ah. If I go to amazon.com, it shows me $1.29. Looks like it's only Amazon UK that has the cheap price.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by avantman42

Why, can't you get it from Amazon? Or is it full price on amazon.com? I'm in the UK, so I don't see the real price on the .com site.

Sorry, didn't think about that fact.

[AnemicOak]

Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors by Stephen E. Ambrose - $1.99 (usual list is $14.99)

Amazon US | Kobo | Google | B&N

A New York Times bestseller from the author of Band of Brothers: The biography of two fighters forever linked by history and the battle at Little Bighorn.

On the sparkling morning of June 25, 1876, 611 men of the United States 7th Cavalry rode toward the banks of Little Bighorn in the Montana Territory, where three thousand Indians stood waiting for battle. The lives of two great warriors would soon be forever linked throughout history: Crazy Horse, leader of the Oglala Sioux, and General George Armstrong Custer. Both were men of aggression and supreme courage. Both became leaders in their societies at very early ages. Both were stripped of power, in disgrace, and worked to earn back the respect of their people. And to both of them, the unspoiled grandeur of the Great Plains of North America was an irresistible challenge. Their parallel lives would pave the way, in a manner unknown to either, for an inevitable clash between two nations fighting for possession of the open prairie.

[Little.Egret]

Charles River Editors, free

The Gunpowder Plot of 1605: The History of the Famous Conspiracy to Assassinate King James I of England

The Siege of Masada: The History and Legacy of the Battle that Ended the First Jewish-Roman War

Major John André: The Life and Death of the Famous British Spymaster during the Revolutionary War

Ambrose Bierce: The Life and Mysterious Disappearance of the Famous American Author

The Cultural Revolution: The Controversial History of Mao Zedong's Political Mass Movement After the Great Leap Forward


See all

https://www.amazon.com/s/?url=search...+river+editors

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?url=sear...+river+editors
https://www.amazon.ca/s/?url=search-...+river+editors

[Little.Egret]

Charles River Editors, free

The 1936 North American Heat Wave: The History of America's Deadly Heat Wave during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression

The Persian Wars and the Punic Wars: The History of the Ancient Greek and Roman Victories that Preserved Western Civilization

The Biggest Battles of the Eastern Front During World War II: The Siege of Leningrad, the Battle of Stalingrad, the Battle of Moscow, the Battle of Kursk, and the Battle of Berlin

The Warsaw Uprising of 1944: The History of the Polish Resistance's Failed Attempt to Liberate Poland's Capital from Nazi Germany

and others still free

See all

https://www.amazon.com/s/?tag=mr060-...+river+editors

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?tag=mr06...+river+editors
https://www.amazon.ca/s/?tag=mr022-2...+river+editors

[Little.Egret]

Endeavour Books, free

Miss May by Jerrard Tickell

true story

In 1924, author Jerrard Tickell embarked on an adventure to Hungry.
It was there that he met the young Englishwoman, Mary Allison Walters.
Mary was the British wife of Baron Jenõ Miske-Gerstenberger - the Hungarian consul-general in Munich and Istanbul.
This unassuming woman became a special operations executive during WWII and was responsible for smuggling top secret documents into Hungary.
However, her luck soon ran out when she was caught and given the death penalty.
Somehow, she managed to escape, only to be suddenly abducted and imprisoned once again.
And this time she was in a Soviet camp in the middle of the frozen artic, forced to battle against the terrible conditions every day in order to survive.
This shocking true story was recounted to Tickell through letters almost 50 years later, revealing how years of happiness can be torn to tatters by the brutality of war.

This is the story of inspirational Miss May.

First published 1958 by Hodder and Stoughton

Jerrard Tickell's books, a number of which have been made into successful movies, include Moon Squadron, Island Rescue, and Hussar Honeymoon.


http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GVR0C6C/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01GVR0C6C/
http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01GVR0C6C/

[itisbomb]

Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us
by Michael Moss

is $1.99 at

Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/eb...lt-sugar-fat-1

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Salt-Sugar-Fa...fat#nav-subnav

Below is the blurb:
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The Atlantic • The Huffington Post • Men’s Journal • MSN (U.K.) • Kirkus Reviews • Publishers Weekly

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE JAMES BEARD FOUNDATION AWARD FOR WRITING AND LITERATURE

Every year, the average American eats thirty-three pounds of cheese and seventy pounds of sugar. Every day, we ingest 8,500 milligrams of salt, double the recommended amount, almost none of which comes from the shakers on our table. It comes from processed food, an industry that hauls in $1 trillion in annual sales. In Salt Sugar Fat, Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter Michael Moss shows how we ended up here. Featuring examples from Kraft, Coca-Cola, Lunchables, Frito-Lay, Nestlé, Oreos, Capri Sun, and many more, Moss’s explosive, empowering narrative is grounded in meticulous, eye-opening research. He takes us into labs where scientists calculate the “bliss point” of sugary beverages, unearths marketing techniques taken straight from tobacco company playbooks, and talks to concerned insiders who make startling confessions. Just as millions of “heavy users” are addicted to salt, sugar, and fat, so too are the companies that peddle them. You will never look at a nutrition label the same way again.

[itisbomb]

Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization
by Lars Brownworth

is $1.99 at

Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/eb...st-to-the-west

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Lost-West-For...est#nav-subnav

Below is the blurb:
Filled with unforgettable stories of emperors, generals, and religious patriarchs, as well as fascinating glimpses into the life of the ordinary citizen, Lost to the West reveals how much we owe to the Byzantine Empire that was the equal of any in its achievements, appetites, and enduring legacy.

For more than a millennium, Byzantium reigned as the glittering seat of Christian civilization. When Europe fell into the Dark Ages, Byzantium held fast against Muslim expansion, keeping Christianity alive. Streams of wealth flowed into Constantinople, making possible unprecedented wonders of art and architecture. And the emperors who ruled Byzantium enacted a saga of political intrigue and conquest as astonishing as anything in recorded history.

Lost to the West is replete with stories of assassination, mass mutilation and execution, sexual scheming, ruthless grasping for power, and clashing armies that soaked battlefields with the blood of slain warriors numbering in the tens of thousands.

[sufue]

I read Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture by Ross King a long time ago in DTB and loved it. So I'm excited to see that King's Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle US. This one will float to the top of my TBR list pretty fast, like right now!

link: https://www.amazon.com/Michelangelo-.../dp/B00N8LIIH0

Spoiler:

In 1508, despite strong advice to the contrary, the powerful Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo Buonarroti to paint the ceiling of the newly restored Sistine Chapel in Rome. Despite having completed his masterful statue David four years earlier, he had little experience as a painter, even less working in the delicate medium of fresco, and none with challenging curved surfaces such as the Sistine ceiling's vaults. The temperamental Michelangelo was himself reluctant: He stormed away from Rome, incurring Julius's wrath, before he was eventually persuaded to begin.

Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling recounts the fascinating story of the four extraordinary years he spent laboring over the twelve thousand square feet of the vast ceiling, while war and the power politics and personal rivalries that abounded in Rome swirled around him. A panorama of illustrious figures intersected during this time-the brilliant young painter Raphael, with whom Michelangelo formed a rivalry; the fiery preacher Girolamo Savonarola and the great Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus; a youthful Martin Luther, who made his only trip to Rome at this time and was disgusted by the corruption all around him. Ross King blends these figures into a magnificent tapestry of day-to-day life on the ingenious Sistine scaffolding and outside in the upheaval of early-sixteenth-century Italy, while also offering uncommon insight into the connection between art and history.

[GtrsRGr8]

The markdown is, in fact, 93% of the digital list price.

Golda. By Elinor Burkett. Rated 4.6 stars, from 31 reviews, at Amazon at the present moment. Print list price $16.99; digital list price $13.99; Kindle price now $0.99. HarperCollins e-books, publisher. 497 pages. https://www.amazon.com/Golda-Elinor-.../dp/B0017ZMZ0U.

Book Description
Golda Meir was the first female head of state in the Western world and one of the most influential women in modern history. A blend of Emma Goldman and Martin Luther King Jr. in the guise of a cookie-serving grandmother, her uncompromising devotion to shaping and defending a Jewish homeland against dogged enemies and skittish allies stunned political contemporaries and transformed Middle Eastern politics for decades to follow. She outmaneuvered Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger at their own game of Realpolitik, and led Israel through a bloody war even as she eloquently pleaded for peace, carrying her nation through its most perilous hours while she herself battled cancer.

In this masterful biography, critically acclaimed author Elinor Burkett paints a vivid portrait of a legendary woman defined by contradictions: an iron resolve coupled with magnetic charm, a kindly demeanor that disguised a stunning hard-heartedness, and a complete dedication to her country that often overwhelmed her personal relationships.

[GA Russell]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

Golda Meir was the first female head of state in the Western world...

Actually, many queens have been head of state over the centuries, such as Isabella of Castille and Elizabeth I of England.

Anyone have an idea who might have been the first female head of state in the Western world? (I suppose we cannot count Cleopatra of Egypt, which is southwest of Israel.)

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

Actually, many queens have been head of state over the centuries, such as Isabella of Castille and Elizabeth I of England.

Anyone have an idea who might have been the first female head of state in the Western world? (I suppose we cannot count Cleopatra of Egypt, which is southwest of Israel.)

That is a good point. I was looking at a couple of maps/graphs, on Wikipedia I think that it was, a few days ago. I was trying to determine what is considered "The West" (western hemisphere) and what is considered "The East" (eastern hemisphere). Frankly, I don't remember where Israel fell; it might be considered in The East, but, if so, it would be barely so.

If Israel is considered in The East, Meir might be the first woman in The East to have served as head of state, but. as you pointed out, she wouldn't have been so in The West.

As a side point, Israel is in the continent of Asia. But that's rarely mentioned. When people speak of "Asia" today, they usually mean the land east of Iran or so. Israel, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, and others are usually thrown into a separate category, the "Middle East," even though the Middle East is not a continent. Perhaps some people would find it interesting to know that at one time, and still in some academic circles, everything to the east of the Mediterranean Sea was called the "Orient"! So, that would include Israel, Iraq, Iran, et al.!