FREE/BARGAIN - Non-Fiction - 2015

[GtrsRGr8]

Americans, as well as Britons, should find this book interesting. You will note that the War of 1812 occurred during part of the period of time that this book covers. Britain was fighting the Napoleonic Wars during the period.

In fact, the two wars are connected. The War of 1812 was caused by issues related to Great Britain's prosecution of the Napoleonic Wars. Interestingly, while the United States and Canada see the War of 1812 as a war in its own right, many people in Europe see the War of 1812 as just a theatre of the Napoleonic Wars.

The Age of Elegance: 1812-1822. By Arthur Bryant. No ratings yet (it's just fairly recently been published). Print list price N/A; digital list price $3.99; Kindle price now $0.99. Endeavor Press, publisher. 454 pages. http://www.amazon.com/Age-Elegance-1...e%3A+1812-1822.

Book Description
Britain's first global war...as told by Britain's first great popular historian.

'The Years of Elegance: 1812-1822' is one of the master-works of British narrative history. In his own peerless style, the final volume of a three-part history of the Napoleonic Wars, Bryant tells the compelling story of the conflict with revolutionary France which began in 1793.

Thought of by many as the first world war, fought over four continents and two oceans this war shaped the world for the next century.

For 22 years, starting in 1793, Britain was at war with France

In ‘The Age of Elegance’ Arthur Bryant brings this epic story to a close.

From 1812 onwards, with Napoleon marching into Russia and Wellington's men knocking open the door into Spain behind him, Bryant details the brilliant campaigns which ultimately brought the dictator to his knees.

Bryant charts the road to Waterloo where he describes the battle with unforgettable clarity, and then tells the story of the peacemakers at Vienna.

In final part of the book the author surveys the England that had emerged after so many years of struggle. It was an England rich, powerful, and victorious, overflowing with energy and self-confidence.

He describes both the sources of her power, in agriculture, industry, and commerce, and the depths of injustices, un-redressed wrongs, and simmering discontents that had accumulated under the surface, unperceived by the architects of victory.

He describes how the revolution which the English had mastered in battle nearly overwhelmed them in peace, and closes with a glimpse of the spirit which was able to mitigate those wrongs and move on to the making of the nation's future.

[Little.Egret]

Discipline Through Pain - The School of Infantry: Book 2 by Robert Hatherly

So you've graduated Recruit Training and you believe it's all downhill from here? Think again Devil Dog, you still have a few more items on the agenda to complete before you can even think about relaxing. In fact, the vast majority of Marines make the unfortunate mistake of simply showing up to the School of Infantry, rather than preparing PRIOR to arriving. The reason I say this is unfortunate is because your SOI Instructors will push you physically and mentally, MUCH HARDER than your days at the Recruit Depot. Expect the PT to be more demanding, the pace for hiking to be faster, the weight you will carry on these hikes will be much heavier and your sleep time will be much less.
Read this book and gain useful insight into things you can do NOW that will improve your standard of living immensely later.


Discipline Through Pain - The School of Infantry- Book 2
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00V8YXBRG/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00V8YXBRG/
http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00V8YXBRG/

[Little.Egret]

Flying Fish reprints


Farthest North - Volumes One and Two (Illustrated) by Fridtjof Nansen

Arctic exploration - the voyage of the Fram - most reprints only have volume 1

In 1893 Fridtjof Nansen set sail for the North Pole in the Fram, a ship specially designed to be frozen into the polar ice cap, withstand its crushing pressures, and travel north with the sea's drift. Experts said that such a ship couldn't be built and that the mission was tantamount to suicide. Farthest North, first published in 1897 to great popular acclaim, is the stirring, first-person account of the Fram and her historic voyage. Nansen tells of his expedition's struggle against snowdrifts, ice floes, polar bears, scurvy, gnawing hunger, and the seemingly endless polar night that transformed the Fram into a "cold prison of loneliness." Once it became clear that the Fram could drift no farther, Nansen and crew member Hjalmar Johansen set out on a harrowing fifteen-month sledge journey to reach their destination by foot, which required them to share a sleeping bag of rotting reindeer fur and to feed the weaker sled dogs to the stronger ones. In the end they traveled 146 miles farther north than any Westerner had gone before, representing the greatest single gain in polar exploration in four centuries.


In Northern Mists - Volumes One and Two (Illustrated) by Fridtjof Nansen

a history of arctic voyages was in the first place to make clear the main features in the development of knowledge of the North in early times. By tracing how ideas of the Northern World, appearing first in a dim twilight, change from age to age, how the old myths and creations of the imagination are constantly recurring, sometimes in new shapes, and how new ones are added to them, we have a curious insight into the working of the human mind in its endeavour to subject to itself the world and the universe.


The South Pole - Volumes One and Two (Illustrated) by Roald Amundsen


See all 151

http://www.amazon.com/s/?url=search-...=flying%20fish

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?url=searc...=flying%20fish
http://www.amazon.ca/s/?url=search-a...=flying%20fish

[Little.Egret]

-----

[GtrsRGr8]

The 83% markdown is from the regular (not list) digital (not print) price.

I'm no fan of Marilyn Monroe, but I want to post this for those of you who are, or who otherwise might be interested in reading a bio of her.

The ratings are a little tepid, but the book is big and the price is cheap--that certainly ameliorates the ratings situation in my eyes.

Marilyn Monroe. By Barbara Leaming. Rated 3 1/2 stars, from 55 reviews at Amazon, at the present moment (GoodReads reviewers rate it 3.88/5.00, from 1,322 reviews at the present moment). Print list price $18.00; regular digital price $11.84; Kindle price now $1.99. Random House, LLC, publisher. 479 pages. http://www.amazon.com/Marilyn-Monroe...monroe+leaming.

Book Description
Barbara Leaming's Marilyn Monroe is a complex, sympathetic portrait that will totally change the way we view the most enduring icon of American sexuality. To those who think they have heard all there is to hear about Marilyn Monroe, think again. Leaming's book tells a brand-new tale of sexual, psychological, and political intrigue of the highest order. Told for the first time in all its complexity, this is a compelling portrait of a woman at the center of a drama with immensely high stakes, a drama in which the other players are some of the most fascinating characters from the world's of movies, theater, and politics. It is a book that shines a bright light on one of the most tumultuous, frightening, and exciting periods in American culture.

Basing her research on new interviews and on thousands of primary documents, including revealing letters by Arthur Miller, Elia Kazan, John Huston, Laurence Olivier, Tennessee Williams, Darryl Zanuck, Marilyn's psychiatrist Dr. Ralph Greenson, and many others, Leaming has reconstructed the tangles of betrayal in Marilyn's life. For the first time, a master storyteller has put together all of the pieces and told Marilyn's story with the intensity and drama it so richly deserves.

At the heart of this book is a sexual triangle and a riveting story of betrayal that has never been told before. You will come away filled with new respect for Marilyn's incredible courage, dignity, and loyalty, and an overwhelming sense of tragedy after witnessing Marilyn, powerless to overcome her demons, move inexorably to her own final, terrible betrayal of herself.

Marilyn Monroe is a book that will make you think--and will break your heart.

[GtrsRGr8]

Being the uncultured bumpkin that I am, I had never heard of this book before now, even though it has been around since at least publication in 1963.

The current edition was first published just over a year ago. My source indicates that it hasn't been marked down from that time until now. Grab the ebook now. Or wish later that you had.

And There Was Light: The Extraordinary Memoir of a Blind Hero of the French Resistance in World War II. By Jacques Lusseyran. Rated 5 stars, from 29 reviews, and 4.23/5.00, from 791 ratings at GoodReads at the present moment. Print list price $15.95; digital list(?) price $9.99; Kindle price now $0.99. New World Library, publisher. 306 pages.

Book Description
When Jacques Lusseyran was an eight-year-old Parisian schoolboy, he was blinded in an accident. He finished his schooling determined to participate in the world around him. In 1941, when he was seventeen, that world was Nazi-occupied France. Lusseyran formed a resistance group with fifty-two boys and used his heightened senses to recruit the best. Eventually, Lusseyran was arrested and sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp in a transport of two thousand resistance fighters. He was one of only thirty from the transport to survive. His gripping story is one of the most powerful and insightful descriptions of living and thriving with blindness, or indeed any challenge, ever published.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Little.Egret

Flying Fish reprints


Farthest North - Volumes One and Two (Illustrated) by Fridtjof Nansen

Arctic exploration - the voyage of the Fram - most reprints only have volume 1

In 1893 Fridtjof Nansen set sail for the North Pole in the Fram, a ship specially designed to be frozen into the polar ice cap, withstand its crushing pressures, and travel north with the sea's drift. Experts said that such a ship couldn't be built and that the mission was tantamount to suicide. Farthest North, first published in 1897 to great popular acclaim, is the stirring, first-person account of the Fram and her historic voyage. Nansen tells of his expedition's struggle against snowdrifts, ice floes, polar bears, scurvy, gnawing hunger, and the seemingly endless polar night that transformed the Fram into a "cold prison of loneliness." Once it became clear that the Fram could drift no farther, Nansen and crew member Hjalmar Johansen set out on a harrowing fifteen-month sledge journey to reach their destination by foot, which required them to share a sleeping bag of rotting reindeer fur and to feed the weaker sled dogs to the stronger ones. In the end they traveled 146 miles farther north than any Westerner had gone before, representing the greatest single gain in polar exploration in four centuries.


In Northern Mists - Volumes One and Two (Illustrated) by Fridtjof Nansen

a history of arctic voyages was in the first place to make clear the main features in the development of knowledge of the North in early times. By tracing how ideas of the Northern World, appearing first in a dim twilight, change from age to age, how the old myths and creations of the imagination are constantly recurring, sometimes in new shapes, and how new ones are added to them, we have a curious insight into the working of the human mind in its endeavour to subject to itself the world and the universe.


The South Pole - Volumes One and Two (Illustrated) by Roald Amundsen


See all 151

http://www.amazon.com/s/?url=search-...=flying%20fish

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?url=searc...=flying%20fish
http://www.amazon.ca/s/?url=search-a...=flying%20fish

I've had a look at several of these books and unfortunately all seem to be very poorly formatted. The versions in the MR library are a lot better.

[koland]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

And There Was Light: The Extraordinary Memoir of a Blind Hero of the French Resistance in World War II. By Jacques Lusseyran. Rated 5 stars, from 29 reviews, and 4.23/5.00, from 791 ratings at GoodReads at the present moment. Print list price $15.95; digital list(?) price $9.99; Kindle price now $0.99. New World Library, publisher. 306 pages.

http://www.amazon.com/There-Was-Ligh.../dp/B00I9KUTHW

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I've had a look at several of these books and unfortunately all seem to be very poorly formatted. The versions in the MR library are a lot better.

Unfortunate.

But the MR English language versions of the Fridtjof Nansen items seem to be missing volume 2

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by koland

http://www.amazon.com/There-Was-Ligh.../dp/B00I9KUTHW

Shhhhhh! I was trying to keep that a secret. haha

Thanks for finishing my post. I was trying to make a post waaaaay too late at night last night.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I've had a look at several of these books and unfortunately all seem to be very poorly formatted. The versions in the MR library are a lot better.

The one ebook that I had downloaded, Gibbons, The Decline and Fall, V.1, has pretty good formatting, in my opinion. The text is not right-justified, but I prefer that--I'm from the "old school" which was taught that it is "easier on the eye" than right-justified text.

The photos weren't reproduced well at all, however.

I keep forgetting about the MR library as a source of ebooks. Thanks for reminding us.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

The one ebook that I had downloaded, Gibbons, The Decline and Fall, V.1, has pretty good formatting, in my opinion. The text is not right-justified, but I prefer that--I'm from the "old school" which was taught that it is "easier on the eye" than right-justified text.

The photos weren't reproduced well at all, however.

I keep forgetting about the MR library as a source of ebooks. Thanks for reminding us.

The main issue on the ones I looked at (a couple of the polar exploration ones) was that they had a lot of footnotes, but no work had been done to make the footnotes into hyperlinks. That would make the book very hard work to read. These are "raw" conversions of PG texts, from the look of it. Nothing inherently wrong with that of course, particularly when it's a free book; just something to be aware of.

Sorry, Egret, I'm being terribly impolite here. I should of course have said thank you for posting the links.

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The main issue on the ones I looked at (a couple of the polar exploration ones) was that they had a lot of footnotes, but no work had been done to make the footnotes into hyperlinks. That would make the book very hard work to read. These are "raw" conversions of PG texts, from the look of it. Nothing inherently wrong with that of course, particularly when it's a free book; just something to be aware of.

Sorry, Egret, I'm being terribly impolite here. I should of course have said thank you for posting the links.

No problems.

But I would like more reviews that remind us what to look for (like footnotes and only Volume 1) and also give links to better versions.



Best Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass ?


http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39408

The Grateful Dead by Gordon Hall Gerould (study of a group of folk tales)

clickable TOC and footnotes and index.

[Dr. Drib]

The only thing I see on Mobileread in English (my native language) by Amundsen is this:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...en#post2703796

I just now downloaded this and it is GORGEOUS.

[GA Russell]

I too forget to check our Patricia library.

But it's effortless to click on a free book, and see it load onto my kindle the next time I turn it on.