FREE/BARGAIN — Non-Fiction

[Little.Egret]

Charles River Editors, free

Kensington Palace: The History of One of the British Royal Family's Most Famous Residences

The Middle Kingdom of Ancient Egypt: The History and Legacy of the Reunification of Egypt and Egyptian Civilization


https://www.amazon.com/s/?url=search...ld-title=-kids

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?url=sear...ld-title=-kids

https://www.amazon.ca/s/?url=search-...ld-title=-kids

[koland]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

Part 2. $9.05 (Hardcover, Used-Good); apparently not available in digital form there.

try: Encyclopedia of ancient egypt 3rd edition pt 02 https://issuu.com/werewolf1975/docs/...nt_egypt_-_3rd

[ATDrake]

X-link to the DRM-free thread for a non-fiction Bundle of Holding:

Designers, Dragons, and More consists entirely of non-fiction about the history and design of RPGs and other games. There's a substantial 4-volume history covering Dungeons and Dragons and its assorted imitators, as well as the surrounding industries and culture which developed around them, another separate history covering GenCon, the decades-old largest RPG convention in North America, and a couple of books with top game designers discussing the design appeal of their favourite hobby and family games.

[ATDrake]

X-link to the Comics thread for a bundle with some non-fiction content:

Humble Comics Bundle IDW Creator Showcase has just one non-fiction title in it, but it's a really good one available at the $1 minimum tier, and which I highly recommend.

The Comic Book History of Comics by Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey is Exactly What It Says In The Title, and provides well-researched and very readable stories about the roots and influential creators and other figures (such as Fredric Wertham (Wikipedia) who led the pearl-clutching moral crusade about comics being a bad influence upon the kiddies in the 1950s) around the world, in comic-book format. There's Jack Kirby, Hergé, Osamu Tezuka, Roy Lichenstein, Stan Lee, Will Eisner, Alan Moore, and many more, as well as general anecdotes about the medium and industry.

From the looks of it, this is a collection of the B&W original series (there's also a coloured remastered reprint which I have as a wishlist pre-order in paperback).

[Little.Egret]

Charles River Editors, free

The Huguenots: The History and Legacy of the French Protestants and Their Religious Conflicts with the Catholics

France in World War II: The History of Nazi Germany's Conquest of France and Its Liberation By the Allies

Still Free

The Middle Kingdom of Ancient Egypt: The History and Legacy of the Reunification of Egypt and Egyptian Civilization

Kensington Palace: The History of One of the British Royal Family's Most Famous Residences


https://www.amazon.com/s/?url=search...ld-title=-kids

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?url=sear...ld-title=-kids

https://www.amazon.ca/s/?url=search-...ld-title=-kids

[AnemicOak]

Stephen Sears' excellent book Gettysburg is on sale for $2.99 at...
Amazon | Kobo | Google | B&N

Stephen W. Sears has delivered a masterwork in Gettysburg, his single-volume history of the Civil War's greatest campaign. Drawing on original source material, from soldiers' letters to the Official Records of the war, Sears offers dramatic and informed accounts of every aspect of the campaign, from well-hewn portraits of the battle's leaders to detailed analyses of their strategies and tactics. Sears depicts General Meade's remarkable performance in his first week of army command and pinpoints General Lee's responsibility in the agonizing failure of the Confederate army. With characteristic style and insight, Sears brings the epic tale of the battle in Pennsylvania vividly to life.

As a bonus Kindle customers also get the option of buying the audiobook for an additional $3.99 from Audible when they buy the eBook.

[Little.Egret]

Charles River Editors, free

The Race to the Moon: The History and Legacy of the Cold War Competition Between the Soviet Union and the United States

The Prohibition Era in the United States: The History and Legacy of America's Ban on Alcohol and Its Repeal

Still Free

The Huguenots: The History and Legacy of the French Protestants and Their Religious Conflicts with the Catholics

France in World War II: The History of Nazi Germany's Conquest of France and Its Liberation By the Allies

The Middle Kingdom of Ancient Egypt: The History and Legacy of the Reunification of Egypt and Egyptian Civilization

Kensington Palace: The History of One of the British Royal Family's Most Famous Residences


https://www.amazon.com/s/?url=search...ld-title=-kids

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?url=sear...ld-title=-kids

https://www.amazon.ca/s/?url=search-...ld-title=-kids

[bfisher]

Amazon.ca has a few interesting non-fic books on sale this month. I already had the Bouton, Shirer and Manchester books; all quite good in their own way.

Ball Four by Jim Bouton is on sale at Amazon.ca for $CDN 1.99
https://www.amazon.ca/Ball-Four-Rose.../dp/B00CME4ROM

I got a great kick out of this book when I read it back in 1971.
The Goodreads description:
When first published in 1970, Ball Four stunned the sports world. The commissioner, executives, and players were shocked. Sportswriters called author Jim Bouton a traitor and "social leper." Baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn tried to force him to declare the book untrue. Fans, however, loved the book. And serious critics called it an important social document. Today, Jim Bouton is still not invited to Oldtimer's Days at Yankee Stadium. But his landmark book is still being read by people who don't ordinarily follow baseball.


Louis Zamperini's autobiography is on sale this month at Amazon.ca for $CDN 1.99
Devil at My Heels: A Heroic Olympian's Astonishing Story of Survival as a Japanese POW in World War II by David Rensin and Louis Zamperini
https://www.amazon.ca/Devil-My-Heels.../dp/B004GUT1JQ


William Shirer's Berlin Diary is on sale at Amazon.ca this month for $CDN 2.99
https://www.amazon.ca/Berlin-Diary-J.../dp/B005Z553RA


William Manchester's The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America, 1932-1972 is on sale this month at Amazon.ca for $CDN 2.99
https://www.amazon.ca/Glory-Dream-Na.../dp/B00GOENBHA

[bookmarked]

Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System--and Themselves by Andrew Ross Sorkin

File Size: 10526 KB
Print Length: 632 pages
Publisher: Penguin Books; Updated edition
Publication Date: September 7, 2010

$1.99

https://www.amazon.com/Too-Big-Fail-...dp/B003XQEVUI/

Also at Google Play Store, and probably at other US stores.

Overview

A real-life thriller about the most tumultuous period in America’s financial history by an acclaimed New York Times Reporter

Andrew Ross Sorkin delivers the first true behind-the-scenes, moment-by-moment account of how the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression developed into a global tsunami. From inside the corner office at Lehman Brothers to secret meetings in South Korea, and the corridors of Washington, Too Big to Fail is the definitive story of the most powerful men and women in finance and politics grappling with success and failure, ego and greed, and, ultimately, the fate of the world’s economy.

“We’ve got to get some foam down on the runway!” a sleepless Timothy Geithner, the then-president of the Federal Reserve of New York, would tell Henry M. Paulson, the Treasury secretary, about the catastrophic crash the world’s financial system would experience.

Through unprecedented access to the players involved,*Too Big to Fail*re-creates all the drama and turmoil, revealing neverdisclosed details and elucidating how decisions made on Wall Street over the past decade sowed the seeds of the debacle. This true story is not just a look at banks that were "too big to fail," it is a real-life thriller with a cast of bold-faced names who themselves thought they were too big to fail.

[GtrsRGr8]

I love the website unglue.it. I've posted several of the Open Access (free) ebooks that they have featured on their site.

I love the site in part for selfish reasons. There are now an enormous amount of Open Access books available. Of course, not all are of good quality. Unglue.it let's me be a little lazy, because they vet Open Access books, and then post only those that they think are worthy of being posted. Of course, I do a little vetting myself, in order to be more confident of the quality of the books, but unglue.it's work still saves me some work. And, being human, I like to avoid as much unnecessary work as possible.

Unglue.it's featured free ebook right now is from the University of Michigan Press. It is Strange Science: Investigating the Limits of Knowledge in the Victorian Age, by Lara Pauline Karpenko and Shalyn Rae Claggett (editors).

The blurb:
'Strange Science: Investigating the Limits of Knowledge in the Victorian Age' is an unprecedented collection that examines marginal, fringe, and unconventional forms of scientific inquiry, as well as their cultural representations in the Victorian period. Although now relegated to the category of the pseudoscientific, fields like mesmerism and psychical research captured the imagination of the Victorian public. Conversely, many branches of science that we now view as uncontroversial, such as physics and botany, were often associated with unorthodox methods of inquiry. Whether incorporated into mainstream scientific thought, or relegated by 21st century historians to the category of the pseudo- or even anti-scientific, these sciences generated conversation, enthusiasm, and controversy within Victorian society.

The book was published just last year (2016).

Curious how much a copy of this book is at Amazon? A brand new hardcover is $60; apparently they do not sell it in any other format, including any digital one.

Get your free copy by clicking "Read It Now," just beneath the thumbnail image of the book cover, at unglue.it. Sorry, but the only format available right now is in PDF, but it isn't watermarked and it is DRM-Free. So, it's not very hard to convert it to a format that you might like better.

Thank you, Open Access! Thank you, University of Michigan Press! Thank you, unglue.it!

[gbm]

The Cruise of the Corwin: Journal of the Arctic Expedition of 1881 in Search of de Long and the Jeannette by John Muir. Free Amazon

John Muir relates the story of his 1881 voyage aboard the steamer Thomas Corwin, which set sail from San Francisco for arctic waters off the coast of Alaska in search of a ship tragically lost two years before.

John Muir (1838-1914) also known as "John of the Mountains", was a Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, glaciologist and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada of California and Nevada, have been read by millions. His activism helped to preserve the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and other wilderness areas. The Sierra Club, which he founded, is a prominent American conservation organization. The 211-mile (340 km) John Muir Trail, a hiking trail in the Sierra Nevada, was named in his honor. Other such places include Muir Woods National Monument, Muir Beach, John Muir College, Mount Muir, Camp Muir and Muir Glacier. In Scotland, the John Muir Way, a 130-mile-long route, was named in honor of him.

Spoiler:

In his later life, Muir devoted most of his time to the preservation of the Western forests. He petitioned the U.S. Congress for the National Park bill that was passed in 1890, establishing Yosemite National Park. The spiritual quality and enthusiasm toward nature expressed in his writings inspired readers, including presidents and congressmen, to take action to help preserve large nature areas. He is today referred to as the "Father of the National Parks" and the National Park Service has produced a short documentary about his life.

John Muir has been considered "an inspiration to both Scots and Americans". Muir's biographer, Steven J. Holmes, believes that Muir has become "one of the patron saints of twentieth-century American environmental activity," both political and recreational. As a result, his writings are commonly discussed in books and journals, and he is often quoted by nature photographers such as Ansel Adams. "Muir has profoundly shaped the very categories through which Americans understand and envision their relationships with the natural world," writes Holmes. Muir was noted for being an ecological thinker, political spokesman, and religious prophet, whose writings became a personal guide into nature for countless individuals, making his name "almost ubiquitous" in the modern environmental consciousness. According to author William Anderson, Muir exemplified "the archetype of our oneness with the earth", while biographer Donald Worster says he believed his mission was "...saving the American soul from total surrender to materialism." On April 21, 2013, the first ever John Muir Day was celebrated in Scotland, which marked the 175th anniversary of his birth, paying homage to the conservationist.

Found in my email from Amazon.

bernie

[bfisher]

Gerald Durrell's Corfu trilogy is selling for $CDN 12.99 (discounted from $22.00) at Amazon.ca The bundle contains My Family and Other Animals, Birds, Beasts and Relatives and The Garden of the Gods
https://www.amazon.ca/Corfu-Trilogy-.../dp/B002RI9B76

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by bfisher

Gerald Durrell's Corfu trilogy is selling for $CDN 12.99 (discounted from $22.00) at Amazon.ca The bundle contains My Family and Other Animals, Birds, Beasts and Relatives and The Garden of the Gods
https://www.amazon.ca/Corfu-Trilogy-.../dp/B002RI9B76

Amazon U.S.: "This title is not currently available for purchase."

Interesting title, though. Usually when I see "trilogy," I automatically think "fiction" (probably sci-fi) and pass it by.

[issybird]

Corfu Trilogy on sale at Amazon US for $17.57, regularly $30.

About 40% off list in both spots, but a much better deal in Canada.

[bgalbrecht]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

Amazon U.S.: "This title is not currently available for purchase."

Interesting title, though. Usually when I see "trilogy," I automatically think "fiction" (probably sci-fi) and pass it by.

Open Road Media has the US rights, Penguin has the Canadian rights.
Amazon US