FREE/BARGAIN: Less than $3.00 Non-Fiction Books

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

100+ Knock Knock Jokes - free
https://www.amazon.com/Books-Kids-Kn...dp/B00O3GVRFY/

Even though I'm not quite a kid anymore, I still like a good knock-knock joke. And other corny jokes, for that matter. Thanks for posting.

[GA Russell]

An Introduction To Rose Growing - free
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00PCPAVDO/

*****

Man vs. The Welfare State - Henry Hazlitt - $2.80
https://www.amazon.com/Man-vs-Welfar...dp/B004YFFBEC/

[GtrsRGr8]

[QUOTE=GA Russell;3470970]An Introduction To Rose Growing - free
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00PCPAVDO/

I notice that the URL has "smile.amazon." I had a question about who the money went to--the charity of the one posting, or the charity of the one clicking the link. In case anyone else would like to know, the system directed me to my charity of choice.

I also had wondered about whether or not it was within the rules to even include a "smile.amazon" domain name. I have seen enough, though, that I'm sure that the moderators would have said something if it was against the rules. I suppose that the "affiliate" prohibition is only for for-profit businesses and/or those in a book business. If it is within the rules, thanks to the moderators for allowing these "smile" URL's. And thanks to Amazon for chipping in a portion of the sales price to our charity of choice--as many customers that Amazon has, it can really build up to a lot of money, I'm sure. The next time that I'm in contact with the business manager of the charity of my choice, I'll think I'll try to pull out of him just how much money they get from the program.

Speaking of growing roses . . . . I wonder if a 40-page book would include this, but you can get rose gloves to do your pruning, etc. work, so as to not to be pricked by thorns repeatedly. You can't find them just anywhere, but I know that Lowes and/or Home Depot carry them (I checked one of them one time, but I've forgotten which one it was). I'm "sure" that Amazon (A-to-Z and all of that) carries them, too.

BTW--if you're thinking about using rose gloves to play with your young cat without getting your hand shredded by their thin, needle-sharp claws, and needle-sharp teeth, it didn't work for me. He was put off by the gloves and wouldn't play anymore.

[GA Russell]

Funny Jokes and Riddles for Kids - free
https://www.amazon.com/Funny-Jokes-R...dp/B01MZEZW1Y/

*****

This Is Your Brain on Music - $1.99
https://www.amazon.com/This-Your-Bra...dp/B000PC0SDW/

*****

High Finance: The Secrets Wall Street Doesn't Want You to Know - $1.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N9LTT00

*****

Francis Allen Ellis Historical Photography - The City of Detroit - free
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CNK48QM/

[GA Russell]

Teaching College - free
https://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Coll...dp/B01NCXF8JC/

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

Teaching College - free
https://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Coll...dp/B01NCXF8JC/

Looks like it might be a really hidden jewel. 242 pages, 4.9 stars, from 50 reviews at Amazon; only 2 ratings at GoodReads, but they're both 5's. Amazingly, it's self-published. This book was published in 2017, though, so some major publisher may grab it if and when the author revises it, or maybe even before (I don't know how those things work).

Thanks for the post!

[GtrsRGr8]

This looks like another great self-pub--having 4.6 stars at Amazon, and being 306 pages long! Too, it's the #1 seller in one Kindle category. And the markdown is as high as you can get (unless someone pays you to take it. ha)--100%.

When I make a post, however, I try to give you the good, the bad, and the ugly. Hopefully, there's not much of the bad and ugly in a book--I try not to post any book with those. But, at the same time, if I have any reservations about a book, I want to express them. I have one concerning this book: in the book description, the author is called an "award-winning biographer." Maybe she is, but it seems a little odd that, according to the dedicated webpage at Amazon for the author, this is the only book of hers sold at Amazon.

Alexander Hamilton: The Complete Biography of a True Patriot and One of America's Most Remarkable Founding Fathers. By Florian Hewitt. Rated 4.6 stars, from 34 reviews at Amazon at the present moment. Print list price $11.49; digital list price $3.99; Kindle price now $0.00. Self-published. 306 pages. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N76G9EU/.

Book Description
The true, detailed, and complete biography of Alexander Hamilton; a remarkable Founding Father who inspired the hit Broadway musical Hamilton!

Award-winning biographer Florian Hewitt delivers a riveting and unforgettable account of Alexander Hamilton, the visionary Founding Father who electrified a young nation in its formative years. With a mix of leadership, scandal, and political savvy, Hamilton forever left his mark on the United States of America.

In this full-length biography of Alexander Hamilton, Florian Hewitt tells the spellbinding tale of a man who lead a newborn America through its earliest struggles, victories, and growing pains. Florian Hewitt’s Alexander Hamilton has been recognized as among the best biographies of Alexander Hamilton ever written and a text that will define Hamilton’s legacy in the modern era for generations to come.

Perhaps no other figure throughout the history of America has been more frequently misunderstood or as politically polarizing as Alexander Hamilton. Florian Hewitt slavishly adheres to the facts of Hamilton’s life and forever sets out the true account of Alexander Hamilton, his political values, his economic convictions, and his lasting legacy as a proponent of ideas that were widely disputed in his time but have been largely vindicated by history.

Florian Hewitt’s treatment of Alexander Hamilton is detailed and far-reaching, describing a life of uncertainty, instability, and improbability. Beginning his time on earth as an illegitimate orphan in the West Indies, Hamilton would go on to surprise everyone and surpass any conceivable expectation of his prospects in life. The trusted right-hand man of George Washington, the co-author of the pivotal Federalist Papers, and the founder of the Bank of New York, Hamilton would go on to lead the Federalist Party, and cement his place in American history as the country’s first Treasury Secretary.

It is typical for American history to be taught as a victory of Jefferson’s democratic values over the stuffy aristocracy favored by Hamilton. Relentlessly focused on the facts, Hewitt crafts a biography of a man that shows an entirely different side of the story. Hamilton was motivated not by his own selfish interests but by a vision of a better, more powerful America with enduring prosperity for all. The real-life account of Hamilton that is set out here is a full and complete picture of a man who had his flaws and scandals, including his torrid affair with Maria Reynolds, but who was also deeply patriotic and willing to publicly clash with anyone in the name of crafting a better nation, from Jefferson, to Adams, to Madison, to Burr, Hamilton would shy away from no battle.

Never has a more complete biography of Alexander Hamilton been published, and through Hewitt’s telling of his life, the reader can truly see the birth of what would become the world’s greatest superpower through the eyes of this remarkable Founding Father. At a time of greater polarization and political instability than the United States has seen in generations, Hewitt’s biography reminds contemporary readers of the function and wisdom of our public institutions, the values that have defined us as a nation, and what it truly means to be an American.

Hewitt’s treatment of the life of Alexander Hamilton is exhilarating, informative, unforgettable, and second to none.

[bgalbrecht]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

When I make a post, however, I try to give you the good, the bad, and the ugly. Hopefully, there's not much of the bad and ugly in a book--I try not to post any book with those. But, at the same time, if I have any reservations about a book, I want to express them. I have one concerning this book: in the book description, the author is called an "award-winning biographer." Maybe she is, but it seems a little odd that, according to the dedicated webpage at Amazon for the author, this is the only book of hers sold at Amazon.

I picked it up for free, but I found it odd that there's basically nothing on found on web searches for Hewitt, except for this, and a few hits for roughly 100 page bios on Einstein and Cleopatra. I find that a bit odd, too, since I think most biographers specialize, for example, contemporaries in the revolutionary war or civil war, or ancient Rome, because it takes a lot to figure out how to do research for any given era. If it wasn't free, without any sense of who Florian Hewitt is, and what sort of credentials he has. BTW, is there something in the book that indicates the author's gender? From my limited experience with this unusual name, Florian is usually male.

With the probably bogus claim to be award-winning, as well as not being able to find out anything about the author, there's no way I would have paid for this book.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by bgalbrecht

I picked it up for free, but I found it odd that there's basically nothing on found on web searches for Hewitt, except for this, and a few hits for roughly 100 page bios on Einstein and Cleopatra. I find that a bit odd, too, since I think most biographers specialize, for example, contemporaries in the revolutionary war or civil war, or ancient Rome, because it takes a lot to figure out how to do research for any given era. If it wasn't free, without any sense of who Florian Hewitt is, and what sort of credentials he has. BTW, is there something in the book that indicates the author's gender? From my limited experience with this unusual name, Florian is usually male.

With the probably bogus claim to be award-winning, as well as not being able to find out anything about the author, there's no way I would have paid for this book.

Ha. I don't think that I had ever known anyone named Florian in modern times before. I had heard of a "Saint Florian," from the long-ago past (how long ago I didn't know) but I did not know anything (else) about the person, even to the extent of gender. The information on the author's dedicated webpage at Amazon was so sparse that I wasn't going to get any help about the author's gender from it. Genuine thanks for the correction.

People are named after Roman Catholic and Orthodox Church saints all of the time, but I had never known someone named after this saint. Interestingly, I do know of a very small community in an area in the Deep South, named St. Florian (locals call it "Saint Floreen" ha). No doubt, it was named after the saint. Even more interesting is that this is in an area where a Roman Catholic is about as rare as an Eskimo in Hawaii. Orthodox people are probably much less common than that.

The only way that I could see that the author (or whoever wrote his book description) was an award winner was that this book is a #1 seller at Amazon somewhere. I think that I mentioned that fact in my post. That would be very flimsy, though, IMHO, and I wouldn't even consider it an award.

[GA Russell]

Fund Your Ideal Lifestyle - free
https://www.amazon.com/Fund-Your-Ide...dp/B01N16O9S5/

[GA Russell]

[QUOTE=GtrsRGr8;3470985]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

An Introduction To Rose Growing - free
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00PCPAVDO/

That wasn't deliberate. It's news to me that you get your own favorite charity when you click on such a URL. Thanks for that tip!

[GtrsRGr8]

[QUOTE=GA Russell;3472472]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

That wasn't deliberate. It's news to me that you get your own favorite charity when you click on such a URL. Thanks for that tip!

Well, after rethinking what I had written earlier, if you copied the URL from another source, the smile.Amazon money would normally have gone to that other source. But, if you stripped the URL of the tags indicating what the source was, I see no way for the source to have gotten anything out of it.

You have to designate a source, of course. Since you didn't have anyone designated to receive the funds, I guess that they were just lost. I don't remember, now, if the book that you posted was free or not, but if Amazon charged for it, I think that the percentage that they donate is 2%. But, maybe I'm thinking 2%, because it is the percentage of purchases on my credit card that goes toward a cashback bonus. ha Of course, if it was free, the charity would get 2% of $0, which, of course, is $0.

The recipient doesn't have to be a charity, per se, but it probably has to be a non-profit organization. I've designated my paltry amount to go to one of the colleges of which I'm an alum. Unfortunately, I keep forgetting to make sure to put "smile." at the beginning of the URL's that I navigate to. Part of the reason is that the amount is usually so tiny that I don't bother to make a point to remember to do it. But, of course, pennies add up and if every alum did it consistently, it would amount to more than chump change.

I've probably stated something inaccurate in what I've written above. The best thing to do is to find the Amazon webpage that explains it all. And, it seems like there must be a way for the "smile." to appear automatically on every Amazon webpage that I go to, but it doesn't. I need to read up on that, myself, and find out how to get that to happen all of the time.

[koland]

the smile.amazon url lets Amazon send a portion to a charity of YOUR choosing; it completely ignores the "tag=" portion in determining the portion to the charity and which one.

The tag= automatically added here sends a portion to MobileRead. That works whether it is smile. or not. I haven't checked lately, but at one time the percentage to the tag= affiliate was the same whether it was smile. or not, as well, but I expect that to change eventually, if it hasn't already.

ETA: As to percentages:
0.5% goes to charity with smile.
up to 8.5% goes to the tag affiliate, depending on sales and the product
up to 5% goes back into your pocket (using their prime.amazon card or sometimes a discover promotion, for example).

So, Amazon can have up to 14% going out on commissions, although it is less on ebooks, electronics, video games and several other categories.

To the consumer, it makes no difference, their price is the same either way.

[GA Russell]

Writing the Cozy Mystery - 99 cents
https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Cozy-...dp/B00I8O1KYA/

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by koland

the smile.amazon url lets Amazon send a portion to a charity of YOUR choosing; it completely ignores the "tag=" portion in determining the portion to the charity and which one.

The tag= automatically added here sends a portion to MobileRead. That works whether it is smile. or not. I haven't checked lately, but at one time the percentage to the tag= affiliate was the same whether it was smile. or not, as well, but I expect that to change eventually, if it hasn't already.

ETA: As to percentages:
0.5% goes to charity with smile.
up to 8.5% goes to the tag affiliate, depending on sales and the product
up to 5% goes back into your pocket (using their prime.amazon card or sometimes a discover promotion, for example).

So, Amazon can have up to 14% going out on commissions, although it is less on ebooks, electronics, video games and several other categories.

To the consumer, it makes no difference, their price is the same either way.

Sounds like a very definitive answer to a subject that I only had a vague understanding of. But, it also brings up some questions, that I don't have to know the answer to and don't want to bother you or anyone else to answer. Nor do I really have the time to ask the questions now.