FREE/BARGAIN — Non-Fiction

[issybird]

Athene Palace: Hitler's "New Order" Comes to Rumania by R.G. Waldeck is down to $2.99 everywhere, from $12.99 to $19.99 depending on the store. (Free at KU).

"The most vivid report, long or short, I have ever seen on Romania . . . brilliantly written and mercilessly barbed . . . unusually skillful and readable." —The New York Times

On the day that Paris fell to the Nazis, R. G. Waldeck was checking into the swankiest hotel in Bucharest, the Athene Palace. A cosmopolitan center during the war, the hotel was populated by Italian and German oilmen hoping to secure new business opportunities in Romania, international spies cloaked in fake identities, and Nazi officers whom Waldeck discovered to be intelligent but utterly bloodless. A German Jew and a reporter for Newsweek, Waldeck became a close observer of the Nazi invasion. As King Carol first tried to placate the Nazis, then abdicated the throne in favor of his son, Waldeck was dressing for dinners with diplomats and cozying up to Nazi officers to get insight and information. From her unique vantage, she watched as Romania, a country with a pro-totalitarian elite and a deep strain of anti-Semitism, suffered civil unrest, a German invasion, and an earthquake, before turning against the Nazis.

[Quoth]

https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/reflections-48
Reflections
Reflections is a witty and insightful collection of essays, talks and interviews by beloved fantasy author Diana Wynne Jones, spanning thirty years of her life and work.

Drawing on her experiences studying under Tolkien and C.S Lewis at Oxford, Jones explores fantasy literature with sharp intelligence and humour.

Reduced to 99p

[salty-horse]

The Anglo-Saxons by Marc Morris is £1 in the UK (Kobo, Amazon)

Sixteen hundred years ago Britain left the Roman Empire and swiftly fell into ruin. Into this violent and unstable world came foreign invaders from across the sea, and established themselves as its new masters. In this sweeping and original history, renowned historian Marc Morris separates the truth from the legend and tells the extraordinary story of how the foundations of England were laid.

[bookmarked]

Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and The People Who Play It by David M. Ewalt is on sale for $1.99 at

Amazon
Kobo

Updated with an introduction by Joe Manganiello and extensive new content for the 50th Anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons, the fascinating and authoritative history of Dungeons & Dragons that “tracks D&D’s turbulent rise, fall, and survival, from its heyday in the 1980s…to the 21st century” (The Wall Street Journal), by award-winning journalist David M. Ewalt.

Even if you’ve never played Dungeons & Dragons, you probably know someone who has: the game has had a profound influence on our culture, and 2014 marks the intriguing role-playing phenomenon’s 40th anniversary. Released decades before the Internet and social media, Dungeons & Dragons inspired one of the original nerd subcultures and is still revered by more than 30 million fans. Now, the authoritative history and magic of the game are revealed by an award-winning journalist and lifelong D&D player.

In Of Dice and Men, David Ewaltdescribes the development of Dungeons & Dragons from the game’s origins on the battlefields of ancient Europe through the hysteria that linked it to satanic rituals and teen suicides to its apotheosis as father of the modern video-game industry. As he chronicles the surprising history of the game’s origins (a history largely unknown even to hardcore players) and examines D&D’s lasting impact, Ewalt weaves laser-sharp subculture analysis with his own present-day gaming experiences, “writing about the world of fantasy role-playing junkies with intelligence, dexterity, and even wisdom” (Ken Jennings). An enticing blend of history, journalism, narrative, and memoir, Of Dice and Men sheds light on America’s most popular form of collaborative entertainment.