FREE/BARGAIN — Non-Fiction

[svenlind]

Originally Posted by issybird

In a "limited time deal", the Penguin History of the World is 99¢ at Kindle, down from $15.99. Not discountable at Kobo.

https://www.amazon.com/Penguin-Histo...dp/B00ADNPDEM/

Got it. A true deal.

[salty-horse]

The Edge of Space-Time by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

**NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A fresh, charming, socially conscious tour of the mysteries of space-time, from the award-winning author of The Disordered Cosmos

“With this extraordinary book, Prescod-Weinstein cements her status as one of the most accomplished and important science writers of our time” —Ed Yong, author of An Immense World**

In her highly acclaimed debut, distinguished cosmologist and particle physicist Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein shared with her audience an abiding sense of wonder at the cosmos, while imagining a world without the entrenched injustice that plagues her field. Now, in The Edge of Space-Time, she embraces that cosmic wonder, taking readers on a mind-altering journey to the boundaries of the universe, inviting us to spend time at the edge of what we know about space-time and about ourselves.

Guided by her conviction that for humanity to go forward we must know our cosmic past, and drawing on poetry and popular culture—from Langston Hughes, Queen Latifah, and Lewis Carroll, to Big K.R.I.T., Sun Ra, and Star Trek—Prescod-Weinstein renders accessible some of the most abstract concepts of theoretical physics to tell fascinating stories about the history and fundamental nature of our universe. Here we meet the quantum cat that is both dead and alive, learn the difference between dark matter and dark energy, explore the inner workings of black holes, and investigate the possibility of a unified theory of quantum gravity, following our guide out to the far reaches of the cosmic event horizon and down to the tiniest (and queerest) neutrino. Along the way, she calls on us to resist colonial approaches to space exploration and instead imagine a better path forward in our pursuit of humanity’s undeniable connection with the stars.

Through Prescod-Weinstein’s clear-eyed and unique perspective, and informed by her deep knowledge of postcolonial history and Black feminist thought, The Edge of Space-Time argues that physics is an essential way for everyone to look at the universe and presents a compelling case that “the edge” is a powerful vantage point from which to see the big picture.

[Martinoptic]

University of Chicago Press September free book of the month is Brown In The Windy City
This is the first history to examine the migration and settlement of Mexicans and Puerto Ricans in postwar Chicago. Lilia Fernández reveals how the two populations arrived in Chicago in the midst of tremendous social and economic change and, in spite of declining industrial employment and massive urban renewal projects, managed to carve out a geographic and racial place in one of America’s great cities.

[salty-horse]

Monsters by Claire Dederer is £1 in the UK (Kobo, Amazon)

Pablo Picasso beat his partners. Richard Wagner was deeply antisemitic. David Bowie slept with an underage fan. But many of us still love Guernica and the Ring cycle and Ziggy Stardust.

And what are we to do with that love? How are we, as fans, to reckon with the biographical choices of the artists whose work sustains us?

Wildly smart and insightful, Monsters is an exhilarating attempt to understand our relationship with art and the artist in the twenty-first century.

[salty-horse]

Get Ahead of Being Dead by Evie King is £1 in the UK (Kobo, Amazon)

Welcome mortal, to your little book of death homework. A practical, compassionate and laugh out loud guide to preparing for the end.

An informative, practical and yet highly entertaining read from former comedian and council funeral officer Evie King, who walks you through everything you need to sort your death out, so others don't have to.

Have you ever sat down and thought about what happens after you die? And have you told anyone what you want when you're gone? Probably not. Sort your death out, so you can get on and enjoy the rest of your life.

As well as recounting real-death stories, Evie takes you through a series of lessons and exercises spanning all things death preparation, including advice on how to:
· Think about what you really want to happen at your funeral
· Express your wishes to avoid post-death pandemonium
· Clear your clutter so that those you love don't have to
· Ensure the admin of your life can be packed down quickly and efficiently
· Plan your post-death online life.

Get Ahead of Being Dead is a gift to your future (dead) self. By taking control and preparing for death, you can prepare to live ... and do both better as a result.

[bookmarked]

Originally Posted by bookmarked

Sync: How Order Emerges from Chaos In the Universe, Nature, and Daily Life by Steven H. Strogatz is on sale for $2.99.

On sale again, for $1.99 this time, but only for another 7.5 hours. Not on sale at Kobo.

At the heart of the universe is a steady, insistent beat, the sound of cycles in sync. Along the tidal rivers of Malaysia, thousands of fireflies congregate and flash in unison; the moon spins in perfect resonance with its orbit around the earth; our hearts depend on the synchronous firing of ten thousand pacemaker cells. While the forces that synchronize the flashing of fireflies may seem to have nothing to do with our heart cells, there is in fact a deep connection.

Synchrony is a science in its infancy, and Strogatz is a pioneer in this new frontier in which mathematicians and physicists attempt to pinpoint just how spontaneous order emerges from chaos. From underground caves in Texas where a French scientist spent six months alone tracking his sleep-wake cycle, to the home of a Dutch physicist who in 1665 discovered two of his pendulum clocks swinging in perfect time, this fascinating book spans disciplines, continents, and centuries. Engagingly written for readers of books such as Chaos and The Elegant Universe, Sync is a tour-de-force of nonfiction writing.

From Publishers Weekly
Strogatz is a Cornell mathematician and pioneer of the science of synchrony, which brings mathematics, physics and biology to bear on the mystery of how spontaneous order occurs at every level of the cosmos, from the nucleus on up. In this eminently accessible and entertaining book, Strogatz explores the mysterious synchrony achieved by fireflies that flash in unison by the thousands, and the question of what makes our own body clocks synchronize with night and day and even with one another. He explores the sync of inanimate objects, inadvertently discovered by Christiaan Huygens in 1665 when he observed that his two pendulum clocks would swing in unison when they were within a certain distance of each other. A case of spontaneous synchrony occurred on the 2000 opening of the Millennium footbridge in London when hundreds of pedestrians caused the bridge to undulate erratically as they unconsciously adjusted their pace to the bridge's swaying-it was closed two days later. Strogatz explores synchrony in chaos systems, at the quantum level, in small-world networks as exemplified by the parlor game "six degrees of Kevin Bacon" and in human behavior involving fads, mobs and the herd mentality of stock traders. The author traces how the isolated and often accidental discoveries of researchers are beginning to gel into the science of synchrony, and he amply illustrates how the laws of mathematics underlie the universe's uncanny capacity for spontaneous order.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

[salty-horse]

Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind by Annalee Newitz is $3 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

In Stories Are Weapons, best-selling author Annalee Newitz traces the way disinformation, propaganda, and violent threats—the essential tool kit for psychological warfare—have evolved from military weapons deployed against foreign adversaries into tools in domestic culture wars. Newitz delves into America’s deep-rooted history with psychological operations, beginning with Benjamin Franklin’s Revolutionary War–era fake newspaper and nineteenth-century wars on Indigenous nations, and reaching its apotheosis with the Cold War and twenty-first-century influence campaigns online. America’s secret weapon has long been coercive storytelling. And there’s a reason for that: operatives who shaped modern psychological warfare drew on their experiences as science fiction writers and in the advertising industry.

Now, through a weapons-transfer program long unacknowledged, psyops have found their way into the hands of culture warriors, transforming democratic debates into toxic wars over American identity. Newitz zeroes in on conflicts over race and intelligence, school board fights over LGBT students, and campaigns against feminist viewpoints, revealing how, in each case, specific groups of Americans are singled out and treated as enemies of the state. Crucially, Newitz delivers a powerful counternarrative, speaking with the researchers and activists who are outlining a pathway to achieving psychological disarmament and cultural peace.

Incisive and essential, Stories are Weapons reveals how our minds have been turned into blood-soaked battlegrounds—and how we can put down our weapons to build something better.

[salty-horse]

A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching by Rosemary Mosco is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

Part field guide, part history, part ornithology primer, and altogether fun.

Fact: Pigeons are amazing, and until recently, humans adored them. We’ve kept them as pets, held pigeon beauty contests, raced them, used them to carry messages over battlefields, harvested their poop to fertilize our crops—and cooked them in gourmet dishes. Now, with The Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching, readers can rediscover the wonder. Equal parts illustrated field guide and quirky history, it covers behavior: Why they coo; how they flock; how they preen, kiss, and mate (monogamously); and how they raise their young (on chunky pigeon milk). Anatomy and identification, from Birmingham Roller to the American Giant Runt to the Scandaroon. Birder issues, like what to do if you find a baby pigeon stranded in the park. And our lively shared story together, including all the things we’ve taught them—Ping-Pong, for example. “Rats with wings?” Think again.
Pigeons coo, peck and nest all over the world, yet most of us treat them with indifference or disdain. So Rosemary Mosco, a bird-lover, science communicator, writer, and cartoonist (and co-author of The Atlas Obscura Explorer’s Guide for the World’s Most Adventurous Kid) is here to give the pigeon's image a makeover, and to help every town- and city-dweller get closer to nature by discovering the joys of birding through pigeon-watching.

[issybird]

I started volume one of Chips Channon’s diaries, which has been on my tbr for a long time. Channon, for those who don’t know, was a Yank turned Brit who moved in the highest circles and wrote a very dishy diary which is now available in three volumes. I pulled up the Amazon listing to see some of the publishing data and right now it’s only 99¢. Which is a tremendous value, compared to both the regular price of $14.99 and the number of pages, 1003 in the hardcover edition. Probably not price-matchable at Kobo.

https://www.amazon.com/Diaries-Chips...dp/B088SZ45MW/

[Cactus Chef]

Mad World: An Oral History of New Wave Artists and Songs That Defined the 1980s by Lori Majewski is $3 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

A "hugely entertaining" history of the 1980s New Wave music scene told through new interviews with its biggest artists ( Rolling Stone).

Mad World is a compelling oral history that celebrates the New Wave music phenomenon of the 1980s via new interviews with 35 of the most notable artists of the period. Each chapter begins with a discussion of their most popular song and leads to stories of their history and place in the scene, ultimately painting a vivid picture of this colorful, idiosyncratic time. Mixtape suggestions, fashion sidebars, and quotes from famous contemporary admirers help fill out the fun. Participants include members of Duran Duran, New Order, The Smiths, Tears for Fears, Adam Ant, Echo, and the Bunnymen, Devo, ABC, Spandau Ballet, A Flock of Seagulls, Thompson Twins, INXS, and more.

"One addictive chapter after another." —Rob Sheffield, author of Talking to Girls About Duran Duran

"Tells the tale of some of the decade's most unforgettable songs . . . in fascinating detail, letting the architects of these memorable records shine a light on how the sound of a generation came to be." — The Hollywood Reporter

"The new wave era is often dismissed for its one-hit wonders and silly haircuts, but [ Mad World] examines the period with a great deal of love and reverence." — Buzzfeed

"A really informative and insightful read." — People

[bookmarked]

Two books by Eugenia Cheng are on sale for $1.99 each:

Beyond Infinity: An Expedition to the Outer Limits of Mathematics
Amazon
Kobo

Imagine something small enough to fit in your head but too large to fit in the world—or even the universe. What would you call it? And what would it be? How about infinity?  

Mathematician Eugenia Cheng has some answers. Whether pondering why some numbers are uncountable, or why infinity plus one is not the same as one plus infinity, Cheng takes readers on a staggering journey from math at its most elemental to its loftiest abstractions. Along the way she considers how you could use a cheeseboard to help plan a dinner part for 7 billion people, what it would mean to make a chicken-sandwich sandwich, and whether you could create infinite cookies from a finite ball of dough (the math says yes!). 

Unequal: The Math of When Things Do and Don't Add Up
Amazon
Kobo

Math is famous for its equations: 1 + 1 = 2, a^2 + b^2 = c^2, or y = mx + b. It can seem like that’s all mathematics is: following steps to show that what’s on one side of an equation is the same as what’s on the other. 
 
In Unequal, Eugenia Cheng shows that’s just part of the story, and the boring part to boot. Mathematics is a world of shapes, symmetries, and logical ideas. And in that world, the boundary between things being equal and unequal is a gray area, or perhaps a rainbow of beautiful, vibrant, subtly nuanced color. 
 
As *Unequal *shows, once you go over that rainbow, almost everything can be considered equal and unequal at the same time, whether it’s shapes (seen from the right perspective, a circle is the same as an ellipse), words (synonyms), or people—even numbers! That’s because mathematics isn’t a series of rules, facts, or answers. It’s an invitation to a more powerful way of thinking.