FREE/BARGAIN — Non-Fiction

[salty-horse]

Inventor of the Future: The Visionary Life of Buckminster Fuller by Alec Nevala-Lee is $3 on Amazon.com

From Alec Nevala-Lee, the author of the Hugo and Locus Award finalist Astounding, comes a revelatory biography of the visionary designer who defined the rules of startup culture and shaped America’s idea of the future.

During his lifetime, Buckminster Fuller was hailed as one of the greatest geniuses of the twentieth century. As the architectural designer and futurist best known for the geodesic dome, he enthralled a vast popular audience, inspired devotion from both the counterculture and the establishment, and was praised as a modern Leonardo da Vinci. To his admirers, he exemplified what one man could accomplish by approaching urgent design problems using a radically unconventional set of strategies, which he based on a mystical conception of the universe’s geometry. His views on sustainability, as embodied in the image of Spaceship Earth, convinced him that it was possible to provide for all humanity through the efficient use of planetary resources. From Epcot Center to the molecule named in his honor as the buckyball, Fuller’s legacy endures to this day, and his belief in the transformative potential of technology profoundly influenced the founders of Silicon Valley.

Inventor of the Future is the first authoritative biography to cover all aspects of Fuller’s career. Drawing on meticulous research, dozens of interviews, and thousands of unpublished documents, Nevala-Lee has produced a riveting portrait that transcends the myth of Fuller as an otherworldly generalist. It reconstructs the true origins of his most famous inventions, including the Dymaxion Car, the Wichita House, and the dome itself; his fraught relationships with his students and collaborators; his interactions with Frank Lloyd Wright, Isamu Noguchi, Clare Boothe Luce, John Cage, Steve Jobs, and many others; and his tumultuous private life, in which his determination to succeed on his own terms came at an immense personal cost. In an era of accelerating change, Fuller’s example remains enormously relevant, and his lessons for designers, activists, and innovators are as powerful and essential as ever.

[sufue]

Now £0.99 at Kindle UK, as part of today's Daily Deal: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003P2WJ6S

Originally Posted by salty-horse

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot is $2 on Amazon.com

[sufue]

Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed by Ben R. Rich and Leo Janos is $2.99 at Kindle US as part of today's Daily Deal, matched at Kobo US. I remember reading this as a young engineer and finding it both exciting (for what they did) and frustrating (because I was working at that time on a program mired in bureaucracy). Anyway, great book, and having now remembered it, I'm going to have to find time to re-read it...

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A2DIW3C
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00A2DIW3C
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/skunk-works

Spoiler:

This classic history of America's high-stakes quest to dominate the skies is "a gripping technothriller in which the technology is real" (New York Times Book Review).

From the development of the U-2 to the Stealth fighter, Skunk Works is the true story of America's most secret and successful aerospace operation. As recounted by Ben Rich, the operation's brilliant boss for nearly two decades, the chronicle of Lockheed's legendary Skunk Works is a drama of Cold War confrontations and Gulf War air combat, of extraordinary feats of engineering and human achievement against fantastic odds. Here are up-close portraits of the maverick band of scientists and engineers who made the Skunk Works so renowned. Filled with telling personal anecdotes and high adventure, with narratives from the CIA and from Air Force pilots who flew the many classified, risky missions, this book is a riveting portrait of the most spectacular aviation triumphs of the twentieth century.

"Thoroughly engrossing." --Los Angeles Times Book Review

[sufue]

The Daily Deal today at Amazon US is 148 non-fiction titles ranging all the way from military history to biographies to mental health to cookbooks - and sadly even one conspiracy theory book...

But overall, it's a good selection, and I spotted several books I already have and have enjoyed, and a few more to try (of course ). And many seem to be price-matched at Kobo US as well.

Here are links to the deal webpage:
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/b?node=7533915011
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/b?node=7533915011

And here are individual links to just a few that I noticed:

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt, $1.99 (Read and thought it was great)
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0052FF7YM
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the...s-and-religion

Prisoners of the Castle: An Epic Story of Survival and Escape from Colditz, the Nazis' Fortress Prison by Ben Macintyre, $2.99 (I've read and enjoyed a couple of his other books...)
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NLPP1CP
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/pri...-of-the-castle

The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams, and the Making of Modern China by Julia Lovell, $2.99 (I had a prof in college who wrote a book about this, which we of course had to read. It was actually pretty good, but didn't follow on much beyond the immediate impacts of the war. So I'm debating whether the "Making of Modern China" part of this book might be interesting enough to be worth buying it...)
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MW9T64Q
Kobo US: not price-matched, at least as of now

Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture by Ross King, $2.99 (Read it, loved it, have waxed poetic about it elsewhere in this thread...)
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DUVKOUW
Kobo US: not price-matched, at least as of now

Adriatic: A Concert of Civilizations at the End of the Modern Age by Robert D. Kaplan, $2.99 (have read a couple of other histories of the area, but not one focused on "recent" historical times, debating whether to try it)
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0998RHFWL
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/adriatic

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson, $2.99 (great book)
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003EY7JGM
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the...reat-migration

A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers Who Used Them by Neil Bradbury (sounds like it would be useful if I wrote, rather than read, murder mysteries...)
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08R2KXHGP
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/a-taste-for-poison-3

The Science of Murder: The Forensics of Agatha Christie by Carla Valentine, $2.99 (seems like another one for would-be mystery writers)
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09WJNR2CP
Kobo US: not price-matched, at least as of now

The Ancient Guide to Modern Life by Natalie Haynes, $2.99 (the same Natalie Haynes of A Thousand Ships, The Children of Jocasta, etc...)
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NGQ8W9T
Kobo US: not price-matched, at least as of now

Life with Picasso by Françoise Gilot ('nuff said), $1.99
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H71QJ8M
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/life-with-picasso-1

Darling Monster: The Letters of Lady Diana Cooper to Son John Julius Norwich, 1939–1952 by Diana Cooper, $2.99 (I've read and enjoyed several of Norwich's histories, debating whether that makes me want to read this enough to buy it...)
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07P8DGQWH

And related to the above, but not part of the sale (semi-long-term at $2.99):
The Duff Cooper Diaries: 1915-1951 by John Julius Norwich
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IX5CNPY
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the...oper-diaries-1

Madam Speaker: Nancy Pelosi and the Lessons of Power by Susan Page, $2.99 (missed this when it was on sale before, so glad to see it on sale again...)
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FHX86HN
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/madam-speaker-2

Whew! And there are lots more too...

[issybird]

^^I’ve read and enjoyed several of these, but I’d like to give particular mention to Embracing Defeat, the story of the Japanese in the immediate post-war period. This is a fantastic book. It won both the Pulitzer and the National Book Award and was a top ten book for the the year I read it.

[sufue]

Ooh, thanks! I haven't read that, but now it's on my list. (Not sure how close to the top , but definitely on it!)

Originally Posted by issybird

^^I’ve read and enjoyed several of these, but I’d like to give particular mention to Embracing Defeat, the story of the Japanese in the immediate post-war period. This is a fantastic book. It won both the Pulitzer and the National Book Award and was a top ten book for the the year I read it.

[isarl]

Getting Things Done, by David Allen, is currently on sale for $3.
Kindle 🇺🇸
Kindle 🇨🇦
Kobo 🇺🇸
Kobo 🇨🇦
Barnes & Noble

It Didn't Start With You, by Mark Wolynn, is also on sale for $3 right now.
Kindle 🇺🇸
Kindle 🇨🇦
Kobo 🇺🇸
Kobo 🇨🇦
Barnes & Noble

[sufue]

The University of Chicago Press free book this month is Troublemakers: Chicago Freedom Struggles through the Lens of Art Shay by Erik S Gellman and Art Shay. Per its blurb, this features 250 photos by Art Shay with Gellman's accompanying commentary.

As always you have to give UChi Press your email address, but they don't abuse it. The link to the free book page is: https://press.uchicago.edu/books/freeEbook.html

And, they also have a sale going on right now, which is supposedly running through June 15, 2023. Which starts to sound more like pricing decisions, and less like a sale...but what do I know. Info is here: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books...alog/vc60.html

[sufue]

Looks as if the University of Chicago Press is doing two free books this month. Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago's South Side by Eve L Ewing is free this month with a coupon code, in honor of Black history month.

Here's the book info from the email I received:

Spoiler:

“Rejecting the impulse to see education as disconnected from American life and politics, Ghosts in the Schoolyard links the struggles of Chicago public schooling with the city’s notoriously racist housing practices. . . . Perhaps most importantly, Ewing gives direct voice to those served by those schools often dismissed as failing. . . . Mixing history, sociology, and even memoir, Ghosts in the Schoolyard is an important addition to any conversation about the future of public schools and those they were designed to serve.”
—Ta-Nehisi Coates

About the Author
Eve L. Ewing is an associate professor at the University of Chicago. She is the author of Electric Arches, 1919 and her work has appeared in the New York Times, New Yorker, Atlantic, Washington Post, and many other venues. She was born in Chicago, where she still lives.

And here's the info on how to get it - nice that they offer an ePub - many UChi books are PDF only...

Link to book webpage: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books...o27506579.html

How to Download:
1.) Click "Buy this Book"
2.) Select your desired e-book format of "PDF" or "EPUB"
3.) Click "Add to Cart"
4.) Enter the promo code "BHMEBOOK" under "Order Summary" and click "Apply Code"
4.) Proceed to checkout or continue shopping
5.) You'll receive an email with a download link shortly

[salty-horse]

How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog) - Visionary Scientists and a Siberian Tale of Jump-Started Evolution by Lee Alan Dugatkin and Lyudmila Trut is $3 on Amazon.com, Kobo US
This is about the silver fox domestication experiment, co-authored by the project's manager.

Tucked away in Siberia, there are furry, four-legged creatures with wagging tails and floppy ears that are as docile and friendly as any lapdog. But, despite appearances, these are not dogs—they are foxes. They are the result of the most astonishing experiment in breeding ever undertaken—imagine speeding up thousands of years of evolution into a few decades. In 1959, biologists Dmitri Belyaev and Lyudmila Trut set out to do just that, by starting with a few dozen silver foxes from fox farms in the USSR and attempting to recreate the evolution of wolves into dogs in real time in order to witness the process of domestication. This is the extraordinary, untold story of this remarkable undertaking.

Most accounts of the natural evolution of wolves place it over a span of about 15,000 years, but within a decade, Belyaev and Trut’s fox breeding experiments had resulted in puppy-like foxes with floppy ears, piebald spots, and curly tails. Along with these physical changes came genetic and behavioral changes, as well. The foxes were bred using selection criteria for tameness, and with each generation, they became increasingly interested in human companionship. Trut has been there the whole time, and has been the lead scientist on this work since Belyaev’s death in 1985, and with Lee Dugatkin, biologist and science writer, she tells the story of the adventure, science, politics, and love behind it all. In How to Tame a Fox, Dugatkin and Trut take us inside this path-breaking experiment in the midst of the brutal winters of Siberia to reveal how scientific history is made and continues to be made today.

To date, fifty-six generations of foxes have been domesticated, and we continue to learn significant lessons from them about the genetic and behavioral evolution of domesticated animals. How to Tame a Fox offers an incredible tale of scientists at work, while also celebrating the deep attachments that have brought humans and animals together throughout time.

[sufue]

Thank you - this sounds super interesting...

Originally Posted by salty-horse

How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog) - Visionary Scientists and a Siberian Tale of Jump-Started Evolution by Lee Alan Dugatkin and Lyudmila Trut is $3 on Amazon.com, Kobo US
This is about the silver fox domestication experiment, co-authored by the project's manager.

[sufue]

My husband and I recently finished watching Timothy Snyder's The Making of Modern Ukraine course online, and enjoyed it so much that I added Snyder to my eReaderIQ list. And now his On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century is on sale for £0.99 at Kindle UK as part of today's Daily Deal.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N9OJ2DX

Spoiler:

History does not repeat, but it does instruct

In the twentieth century, European democracies collapsed into fascism, Nazism and communism. These were movements in which a leader or a party claimed to give voice to the people, promised to protect them from global existential threats, and rejected reason in favour of myth. European history shows us that societies can break, democracies can fall, ethics can collapse, and ordinary people can find themselves in unimaginable circumstances.

History can familiarise, and it can warn. Today, we are no wiser than twentieth century Europe, who saw democracy yield to totalitarianism.

In just 128 pages, Timothy Snyder delves into the past to show us what could happen in the future if our political orders become imperilled.

Oh, and if you think you might want to watch the course, there's info here and/or you can just go straight to YouTube and search on "Snyder Making of Modern Ukraine" and it will pop right up. There are 20-ish lectures of 45 - 50 minutes each, and we learned a ton in each and every one.

[sufue]

And also on sale for £0.99 in today's Kindle UK Daily Deal is The Lost Rainforests of Britain by Guy Shrubsole, whose blurb indicates that it was the Sunday Times Science Book of the Year, and also shortlisted for some other awards. (And it sounds pretty interesting too...)

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09WM5Y9J2

Spoiler:

The Sunday Times Science Book of the Year
‘If anyone was born to save Britain’s rainforests, it was Guy Shrubsole’ Sunday Times
**Shortlisted for the Richard Jefferies Society and White Horse Book Shop Literary Prize**

From the bestselling author of Who Owns England?, a mesmerising chronicle of our forgotten rainforests – and an inspiring intervention to help restore them to the places they once were

In 2020, writer and campaigner Guy Shrubsole moved from London to Devon. As he explored the wooded valleys, rivers and tors of Dartmoor, Guy discovered a spectacular habitat that he had never encountered before: temperate rainforest. Entranced, he would spend the coming months investigating the history, ecology and distribution of rainforests across England, Wales and Scotland.

Britain, Guy discovered, was once a rainforest nation.

This is the story of a unique habitat that has been so ravaged, most people today don’t realise it exists. Temperate rainforest may once have covered up to one-fifth of Britain and played host to a dazzling variety of luminous life-forms, inspiring Celtic druids, Welsh wizards, Romantic poets, and Arthur Conan Doyle’s most loved creations. Though only fragments now remain, they form a rare and internationally important habitat, home to lush ferns and beardy lichens, pine martens and pied flycatchers. But why are even environmentalists unaware of their existence? And how have we managed to so comprehensively excise them from our cultural memory?

Taking the reader on an awe-inspiring journey through the Atlantic oakwoods and hazelwoods of the Western Highlands and the Lake District, down to the rainforests of Wales, Devon and Cornwall, The Lost Rainforests of Britain maps these under-recognised ecosystems in exquisite detail – but underlines that without immediate political and public support, we risk losing them from the landscape, and perhaps our collective memory, forever. A rich, elegiac and boundary-pushing feat of research and reportage, this is the extraordinary tale of one person’s quest to find Britain’s lost rainforests, and bring them back.

[sufue]

For those who like the science-for-the-layperson genre ^^^, there's another one in today's Kindle UK Daily Deal. Per its webpage, Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures, by Merlin Sheldrake, was a winner of both the Royal Society Science Book prize, and the Wainwright Prize for Conservation Writing. It's on sale for £1.99.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07WJ84V9B

Spoiler:

The more we learn about fungi, the less makes sense without them. They can change our minds, heal our bodies and even help us avoid environmental disaster; they are metabolic masters, earth-makers and key players in most of nature's processes. In Entangled Life, Merlin Sheldrake takes us on a mind-altering journey into their spectacular world, and reveals how these extraordinary organisms transform our understanding of our planet and life itself.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by sufue

For those who like the science-for-the-layperson genre ^^^, there's another one in today's Kindle UK Daily Deal. Per its webpage, Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures, by Merlin Sheldrake, was a winner of both the Royal Society Science Book prize, and the Wainwright Prize for Conservation Writing. It's on sale for £1.99.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07WJ84V9B

I highly recommend this book, even for those not necessarily into science-for-the-layperson.

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