FREE/BARGAIN - Non-Fiction - 2015

[GtrsRGr8]

For those of you in the Deep South, the book's about pickin' out and raisin' 'maters.

I'm listening to an audiobook entitled Tomatoland. It's an interesting book. It laments the sorry state of the tomatoes that we (in the U.S., at least) are sold in the stores nowadays, and how it got to that predicament. (An example of why the commercially-grown tomatoes are so awful-tasting, if they have any taste at all: they are picked green and gassed with ethylene gas to make them red and appear ripe. Ack!) Well, growing your own seems like a viable alternative. This book looks like it'll do a great job of telling you how.

Epic Tomatoes: How to Select and Grow the Best Varieties of All Time. By Craig LeHoullier. Rated 5 stars, from 31 reviews at the present moment. Print list price $19.95; digital list(?) price $9.99; Kindle price now $3.99. Storey Publishing, LLC, publisher. 256 pages. http://www.amazon.com/Epic-Tomatoes-...es+of+All+Time.

Book Description
Savor your best tomato harvest ever! Craig LeHoullier, tomato adviser for Seed Savers Exchange, offers everything a tomato enthusiast needs to know about growing more than 200 varieties of tomatoes — from sowing seeds and planting to cultivating and collecting seeds at the end of the season. He also offers a comprehensive guide to the various pests and diseases of tomatoes and explains how best to avoid them. No other book offers such a detailed look at the specifics of growing tomatoes, with beautiful photographs and helpful tomato profiles throughout.

[koland]

Here, we had some farmers start growing local tomatoes again, with heirloom varieties, marketed as coming from a local county. Once they had a huge following, more people wanted them, more farmers wanted to grow them ... and they had to ship them, people wanted them in winter, etc, and they switched to the same perfect looking (but little taste) varieties that were already sold in stores. I'd rather do without than eat those gassed red globes.

You might want this one too: Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening by Louise Riotte ($2.99 - also Storey)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004A7YINO

[Froide]

Here's this month's freebie from the University of Chicago Press:

Freud’s Couch, Scott’s Buttocks, Brontë’s Grave
by Simon Goldhill

Culture Trails: Adventures in Travel
©2011

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by Froide

Here's this month's freebie from the University of Chicago Press:

Freud’s Couch, Scott’s Buttocks, Brontë’s Grave
by Simon Goldhill

Culture Trails: Adventures in Travel
©2011

I had a little bit of a difficult time figuring out what the book was about, from just the title. hahahah The subtitle--something like "an adventure in travel"--helped considerably. Please allow me to give the blurb:

The Victorian era was the high point of literary tourism. Writers such as Charles Dickens, George Eliot, and Sir Walter Scott became celebrities, and readers trekked far and wide for a glimpse of the places where their heroes wrote and thought, walked and talked. Even Shakespeare was roped in, as Victorian entrepreneurs transformed quiet Stratford-upon-Avon into a combination shrine and tourist trap.

Stratford continues to lure the tourists today, as do many other sites of literary pilgrimage throughout Britain. And our modern age could have no better guide to such places than Simon Goldhill. In Freud's Couch, Scott’s Buttocks, Brontë's Grave, Goldhill makes a pilgrimage to Sir Walter Scott's baronial mansion, Wordsworth's cottage in the Lake District, the Bront ë parsonage, Shakespeare's birthplace, and Freud's office in Hampstead. Traveling, as much as possible, by methods available to Victorians—and gamely negotiating distractions ranging from broken bicycles to a flock of giggling Japanese schoolgirls—he tries to discern what our forebears were looking for at these sites, as well as what they have to say to the modern mind. What does it matter that Emily Brontë’s hidden passions burned in this specific room? What does it mean, especially now that his fame has faded, that Scott self-consciously built an extravagant castle suitable for Ivanhoe—and star-struck tourists visited it while he was still living there? Or that Freud's meticulous recreation of his Vienna office is now a meticulously preserved museum of itself? Or that Shakespeare’s birthplace features student actors declaiming snippets of his plays . . . in the garden of a house where he almost certainly never wrote a single line?

Goldhill brings to these inquiries his trademark wry humor and a lifetime's engagement with literature. The result is a travel book like no other, a reminder that even today, the writing life still has the power to inspire.


Thanks for your post!

[koland]

A few new ones (and lots of repeats): http://www.amazon.com/s/?rh=n:154606...date-desc-rank

[GtrsRGr8]

88% off of digital list.

This book is a new book, having been published for the first time in April 2014.

The author, Edward Hirsch, wrote the national bestseller How to Read a Poem.

A Poet's Glossary. By Edward Hirsch. Rated 4 1/2 stars, from 43 reviews at the present moment. Print list price $30.00; digital list price $24.00; Kindle price now $2.99. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, publisher. 741 pages. http://www.amazon.com/Poets-Glossary...t%27s+Glossary.

Book Description
A major addition to the literature of poetry, Edward Hirsch’s sparkling new work is a compilation of forms, devices, groups, movements, isms, aesthetics, rhetorical terms, and folklore—a book that all readers, writers, teachers, and students of poetry will return to over and over.
Hirsch has delved deeply into the poetic traditions of the world, returning with an inclusive, international compendium. Moving gracefully from the bards of ancient Greece to the revolutionaries of Latin America, from small formal elements to large mysteries, he provides thoughtful definitions for the most important poetic vocabulary, imbuing his work with a lifetime of scholarship and the warmth of a man devoted to his art.

Knowing how a poem works is essential to unlocking its meaning. Hirsch’s entries will deepen readers’ relationships with their favorite poems and open greater levels of understanding in each new poem they encounter. Shot through with the enthusiasm, authority, and sheer delight that made How to Read a Poem so beloved, A Poet’s Glossary is a new classic.

[Little.Egret]

Endeavour

Richard III and the Princes in the Tower by A J Pollard (1991)

Richard III has divided opinion for over five hundred years.

Traditionally, he has been perceived as a villain, a bloody tyrant and the monstrous murderer of his innocent nephews.
Yet to others he was and remains a wronged victim who did his best for kingdom and family, a noble prince and enlightened statesman tragically slain.
This stimulating book explores the story of Richard III and the tales that have been woven around the historic events of the period.
It discusses his life and reign and the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower; and assesses the original sources upon which much of the `history' is based.
While telling the story as he sees it, Professor Pollard also suggests that `the truth' may never be known: the controversial nature of the events at the time is partly to blame; but at least as important are the paucity of the surviving evidence and the fact that the received stories are now so deeply ingrained.

Anthony James Pollard is a British medieval historian, specialising in North-Eastern England during the Wars of the Roses. He is considered a leading authority on the field. A fellow of the University of Teesside, he is part of the research staff of the "Centre for Regional and Local Historical Research". In addition to works on the Wars of the Roses, he has also written books on Robin Hood and Warwick the Kingmaker.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SBBRGIE/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00SBBRGIE/
http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00SBBRGIE/

[Wearever]

Thanks for this one, Little Egret !

[itisbomb]

Black May: The Epic Story of the Allies' Defeat of the German U-Boats in May 1943
by Michael Gannon

is $0.99 at Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Black-May-Alli...ords=black+may

Below is the blurb:
In May 1943, Allied sea and air forces won a stunning, dramatic, and vital victory over the largest and most powerful submarine force ever sent to sea, sinking forty-one German U-boats and damaging thirty-seven others. It was the forty-fifth month of World War II, and by the end of May the Germans were forced to acknowledge defeat and recall almost all of their remaining U-boats from the major traffic lanes of the North Atlantic. At U-Boat Headquarters in Berlin, despondent naval officers spoke of "Black May." It was a defeat from which the German U-boat fleet never recovered.

Black May is a triumph of scholarship and narrative, an important work of history, and a great sea story. Acclaimed historian Michael Gannon, author of Operation Drumbeat, has done enormous research and produced the most thoroughly documented study ever done of these battles. In his compelling historical saga, the people are as significant as the technical information.

Given the strategic importance of the events of May 1943, it is natural to ask, How did Black May happen and why? Who or what was responsible? Were new Allied tactics adopted or new weapons employed?

This book answers those questions and many others. Drawing on original documents in German, British, U.S., and Canadian archives, as well as interviews with surviving participants, Gannon describes the exciting sea and air battles, frequently taking the reader inside the U-boats themselves, aboard British warships, onto the decks of torpedoed merchant ships, and into the cockpits of British and U.S. aircraft.

Throughout, Gannon tells the Black May story from both the German and Allied perspectives, often using the actual words of captains and crews. Finally, he allows the reader to "listen in" on secretly recorded conversations of captured U-boat men in POW quarters during that same incredible month, giving intimate and moving access to the thoughts and emotions of seamen that is unparalleled in naval literature. Rarely, if ever, has the U-boat war been presented so accurately, so graphically, and so personally as in Black May

[Little.Egret]

The Banner of Battle: The Story of the Crimean War by Alan Palmer

In this classic account of the Crimean War, Alan Palmer puts the myths and realities of The Charge of the Light Brigade, Florence Nightingale, the rivalry between Lord Cardigan and Lord Lucan and the patriotic fervour of Imperial Britain into perspective.

The Crimea campaign was a story of Great Power politics and diplomacy.

In Palmer's dramatic narrative, a war often viewed simply as a dramatic incident in the Eastern Question, emerges as a decisive campaign which lowered the stature of both defeated Russia and non-belligerent Austria, and so changed the power structure of Europe.

Alan Palmer was head of the History Department at Highgate School from 1953 to 1969 when he gave up his post to concentrate on historical writing and research. His many books include `The Kaiser', `Victory 1918', `Napoleon and Marie-Louise' and `Bismarck'.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SL2ZLWG/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00SL2ZLWG/
http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00SL2ZLWG/

[ATDrake]

Free again from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon:

THE BATTLE OF JERUSALEM - a Short History of the Six-Day War: June 1967 by investigative reporter Clifford Irving (Wikipedia), who as it turns out, is also the author of a hoax autobiography of eccentric reclusive millionaire Howard Hughes, the kerfuffle surrounding which eventually gotten made into a film, his account of Exactly What It Says In The Title, originally out from Macmillan in 1970.

A short and spellbinding book about the Six-Day War of June 1967, in which Israel fought for its life for the third time in its brief history – and won a decisive victory against overwhelming odds. The author was there as a correspondent for NBC-TV, became a friend of Israeli soldiers and pilots, witnessed part of the battle for the Golan Heights, and traveled post-war to the Suez Canal in a command car with Irwin Shaw, Jules Dassin, and Martha Gellhorn.

Illustrated with rare and moving photographs of the battles, plus clear maps.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by Little.Egret

The Banner of Battle: The Story of the Crimean War by Alan Palmer

. . . .
Alan Palmer was head of the History Department at Highgate School from 1953 to 1969 when he gave up his post to concentrate on historical writing and research. His many books include `The Kaiser', `Victory 1918', `Napoleon and Marie-Louise' and `Bismarck'. [/I]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SL2ZLWG/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00SL2ZLWG/
http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00SL2ZLWG/

Thanks for your post, LE.

The book gets only a 2-star rating. However, there is just one reviewer/rating, so the sample size is way too small for the rating to be valid.

As I am wont to do, I checked Palmer's other books to see what ratings that they have. They vary from fair to very good, and are skewed toward the very good end.

I say all of that to say this: it's probably a lot better book than the 2-star rating. And it's free! By all means, grab it if you're interested in the topic. I did, and I'm looking forward to reading it because the topic of the Crimean War is one of which (one of many. ha) I'm woefully ignorant.

FYI--the Crimea was in the news a lot a year and a half or so. Russia invaded this Ukrainian territory and has already formally, I think, annexed it as its own. This invasion is related to the current situation of ethnic Russian separatists fighting to take the eastern part of Ukraine.

[ATDrake]

Bargain @ $1.99 for today only (March 3rd) from Open Road Media (couponable @ Kobo, price should be good in all the usual US & Canada retailers, may or may not also be discounted in other regions, etc.):

The Jews: Story of a People by the late Howard Fast (Wikipedia), some of whose many novels you've probably seen adapted to film (most likely Spartacus), his non-fiction historical overview originally out from Dial Press in 1968, and apparently updated in 1982. This quotes favourable praise from Jewish media outlets in the editorial review section.

A vivid and eminently readable story of Jewish history covering 4,000 years, and including extensive illustrations and historical photographs

Howard Fast, the bestselling author of Spartacus, tells the sweeping story of the Jewish people and Judaism over four millennia, from their nomadic beginnings and the rise of Moses, to the kings David and Solomon, through the Diaspora and the unthinkable horror of the Holocaust, culminating in the founding of the state of Israel. Fast’s gift for storytelling is on full display in this eminently readable and well-researched history.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Howard Fast including rare photos from the author’s estate.

[GtrsRGr8]

Black Maestro. By Joe Drape. Rated 4 1/2 stars, from 18 reviews at the present moment. Print list price $14.99; regular digital price $9.78; Kindle price now $0.99. HarperCollins e-books, publisher. 298 pages. http://www.amazon.com/Black-Maestro-...=Black+Maestro.

Book Description
In Black Maestro, Joe Drape meticulously brings to life the drama, adventures, romances, and heartbreaks of an unlikely participant in the greatest historical events of the twentieth century. It is a breathtaking narrative that takes you from pastoral Kentucky to Mob–controlled Chicago, from the horse country of Poland to the chaos of Red Square, and from freewheeling Paris to the hard–luck American South of the Depression. It is also a story that returns Jimmy Winkfield to his rightful place as an original American hero.

In 1919, at the age of thirty–seven, as Bolshevik cannon fire thundered above, the already epic life of Jimmy Winkfield turned into an odyssey. With a ragtag band of Russian nobility and Polish soldiers, the son of a black sharecropper from Chilesburg, Kentucky, was entrusted with saving more than 250 of the most royal but fragile thoroughbreds left in crumbling Csarist Russia. They trekked 1,100 miles from Odessa to Warsaw for nearly three months amid the bloodiest part of the Russian Revolution, surviving gunfire and starvation....

[AnemicOak]

We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young by Harold G. Moore & Joseph L. Galloway - $1.99
Amazon US | Google | Kobo | B&N

In November 1965, some 450 men of the First Battalion, Seventh Cavalry, under the command of Lt. Col. Harold Moore, were dropped into a small clearing in the Ia Drang Valley. They were immediately surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. Three days later, only two and a half miles away, a sister battalion was brutally slaughtered. Together, these actions at the landing zones X-Ray and Albany constituted one of the most savage and significant battles of the Vietnam War. They were the first major engagements between the US Army and the People’s Army of Vietnam.

How these Americans persevered—sacrificing themselves for their comrades and never giving up—creates a vivid portrait of war at its most devastating and inspiring. Lt. Gen. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway—the only journalist on the ground throughout the fighting—interviewed hundreds of men who fought in the battle, including the North Vietnamese commanders. Their poignant account rises above the ordeal it chronicles to depict men facing the ultimate challenge, dealing with it in ways they would have once found unimaginable. It reveals to us, as rarely before, man’s most heroic and horrendous endeavor.

We Are Soldiers Still by Harold G. Moore & Joseph L. Galloway - $1.99
Amazon US | Google | B&N

Lt. Gen. Harold Moore and Joseph Galloway return to Vietnam's Ia Drang Valley more than four decades after the battle they recalled in their #1 New York Times bestseller We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young. Renewing their relationships with ten American veterans of the fabled conflict—and with former adversaries—the authors explore how the war changed them all, as well as their two countries.

We Are Soldiers Still is an emotional journey back to hallowed ground, putting a human face on warfare as the authors reflect on war's devastating cost.

Hal Moore: A Soldier Once . . . And Always by Mike Guardia - $1.99
Amazon US | Google | Kobo | B&N

Hal Moore, one of the most admired American combat leaders of the last fifty years, has until now been best known to the public for being portrayed by Mel Gibson in the movie We Were Soldiers. In this first-ever, fully illustrated biography, we finally learn the full story of one of America’s true military heroes.

A 1945 graduate of West Point, Moore’s first combats occurred during the Korean War, where he fought in the battles of Old Baldy, T-Bone, and Pork Chop Hill. At the beginning of the Vietnam War, Moore commanded the 1st Battalion of the 7th Cavalry in the first full-fledged battle between US and North Vietnamese regulars. Drastically outnumbered and nearly overrun, Moore led from the front, and though losing seventy-nine soldiers, accounted for 1,200 of the enemy before the Communists withdrew. This Battle of Ia Drang pioneered the use of “air mobile infantry”—delivering troops into battle via helicopter—which became the staple of US operations for the remainder of the war. He later wrote of his experiences in the bestselling book We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young.

Following his tour in Vietnam, he assumed command of the 7th Infantry Division, forward-stationed in South Korea, and in 1971, he took command of the Army Training Center at Fort Ord, California. In this capacity, he oversaw the US Army’s transition from a conscript-based to an all-volunteer force. He retired as a lieutenant general in 1977.

At this writing, Hal Moore is ninety years old and living quietly in Auburn, Alabama. He graciously allowed the author interviews and granted full access to his files and collection of letters, documents, and never-before-published photographs.