FREE/BARGAIN — Non-Fiction

[Ricky D'Angelo]

Recollections and letters of General Robert E. Lee
https://archive.org/details/recollectionslet00leer

[Avice]

Susan Orlean - The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession, $1.99 on Kindle and Kobo

Inspired the movie Adaptation!

Spoiler:

A modern classic of personal journalism, The Orchid Thief is Susan Orlean’s wickedly funny, elegant, and captivating tale of an amazing obsession. Determined to clone an endangered flower—the rare ghost orchid Polyrrhiza lindenii—a deeply eccentric and oddly attractive man named John Laroche leads Orlean on an unforgettable tour of America’s strange flower-selling subculture, through Florida’s swamps and beyond, along with the Seminoles who help him and the forces of justice who fight him. In the end, Orlean—and the reader—will have more respect for underdog determination and a powerful new definition of passion.

In this new edition, coming fifteen years after its initial publication and twenty years after she first met the “orchid thief,” Orlean revisits this unforgettable world, and the route by which it was brought to the screen in the film Adaptation, in a new retrospective essay.

[keithdt]

Originally Posted by Avice

Susan Orlean - The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession, $1.99 on Kindle and Kobo

Inspired the movie Adaptation!

Spoiler:

A modern classic of personal journalism, The Orchid Thief is Susan Orlean’s wickedly funny, elegant, and captivating tale of an amazing obsession. Determined to clone an endangered flower—the rare ghost orchid Polyrrhiza lindenii—a deeply eccentric and oddly attractive man named John Laroche leads Orlean on an unforgettable tour of America’s strange flower-selling subculture, through Florida’s swamps and beyond, along with the Seminoles who help him and the forces of justice who fight him. In the end, Orlean—and the reader—will have more respect for underdog determination and a powerful new definition of passion.

In this new edition, coming fifteen years after its initial publication and twenty years after she first met the “orchid thief,” Orlean revisits this unforgettable world, and the route by which it was brought to the screen in the film Adaptation, in a new retrospective essay.

The book is much better than the movie and definitely worth reading.

[bartveld]

Originally Posted by Mort1997

Free on Amazon UK -Imperial Warriors: Britain and the Gurkha by Tony Gould

Thank you.

[ATDrake]

X-link to the DRM-free megathread for a new Humble Bundle:

Humble Book Bundle LEGO® Mindstorms & Robotics presented by APress, contains DIY hobbyist textbook titles for Mindstorms, Arduino, and more.

[AnemicOak]

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin - $2.99

Winner of the Lincoln Prize

Acclaimed historian Doris Kearns Goodwin illuminates Abraham Lincoln's political genius in this highly original work, as the one-term congressman and prairie lawyer rises from obscurity to prevail over three gifted rivals of national reputation to become president.

On May 18, 1860, William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, and Abraham Lincoln waited in their hometowns for the results from the Republican National Convention in Chicago. When Lincoln emerged as the victor, his rivals were dismayed and angry.

Throughout the turbulent 1850s, each had energetically sought the presidency as the conflict over slavery was leading inexorably to secession and civil war. That Lincoln succeeded, Goodwin demonstrates, was the result of a character that had been forged by experiences that raised him above his more privileged and accomplished rivals. He won because he possessed an extraordinary ability to put himself in the place of other men, to experience what they were feeling, to understand their motives and desires.

It was this capacity that enabled Lincoln as president to bring his disgruntled opponents together, create the most unusual cabinet in history, and marshal their talents to the task of preserving the Union and winning the war.

We view the long, horrifying struggle from the vantage of the White House as Lincoln copes with incompetent generals, hostile congressmen, and his raucous cabinet. He overcomes these obstacles by winning the respect of his former competitors, and in the case of Seward, finds a loyal and crucial friend to see him through.

This brilliant multiple biography is centered on Lincoln's mastery of men and how it shaped the most significant presidency in the nation's history.

[sufue]

The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II, by Denise Kiernan, looks to be the same sort of thing as Hidden Figures (see previous post upthread). It has dropped to $2.99 as a US Kindle Daily Deal. I quite enjoyed Hidden Figures, and have had this on my watch-for list for a little while, so am happy to see it on sale.

link: https://www.amazon.com/Girls-Atomic-...dp/B008J4GTU4/

Spoiler:

THE GIRLS OF ATOMIC C ITY

AT THE HEIGHT OF WORLD WAR II, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was home to 75,000 residents, consuming more electricity than New York City. But to most of the world, the town did not exist. Thousands of civilians—many of them young women from small towns across the South—were recruited to this secret city, enticed by solid wages and the promise of war-ending work. Kept very much in the dark, few would ever guess the true nature of the tasks they performed each day in the hulking factories in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains. That is, until the end of the war—when Oak Ridge’s secret was revealed.

Drawing on the voices of the women who lived it—women who are now in their eighties and nineties— The Girls of Atomic City rescues a remarkable, forgotten chapter of American history from obscurity. Denise Kiernan captures the spirit of the times through these women: their pluck, their desire to contribute, and their enduring courage. Combining the grand-scale human drama of The Worst Hard Time with the intimate biography and often troubling science of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, The Girls of Atomic City is a lasting and important addition to our country’s history.

[sufue]

The Philosophical Library Existentialism Collection: Essays in Metaphysics, The Ethics of Ambiguity, and The Emotions includes titles by Martin Heidegger (Essays), Simone de Beauvoir (Ethics), and Jean-Paul Sartre (Emotions). It has dropped to $3.99 at Kindle US as part of Open Road's daily deal for today.

link: https://www.amazon.com/Philosophical...dp/B0753MDV1N/

Spoiler:

Understand the concepts that shaped twentieth-century philosophy, theology, psychology, and art, with works by Martin Heidegger, Simone de Beauvoir, and Jean-Paul Sartre.

Existentialism was born in the nineteenth century and came of age in mid-twentieth-century France. Here, three major texts offer an introduction to the philosophy, which emphasizes individual existence, freedom, and personal responsibility while acknowledging the suffering and dread that can accompany our striving for such values.

Essays in Metaphysics: Identity and Difference by Martin Heidegger
In the two lectures translated here, Heidegger provides illuminating insights and touches upon many a vital issue, including our technological age, religion, language, history, and more. His receptiveness, sensitivity, and ability to be at the heart of the problem are represented here, offering a deeper appreciation of the teacher and man who gave the world works such as Being and Time.

The Ethics of Ambiguity by Simone de Beauvoir
The second major essay by the groundbreaking author of The Second Sex and a classic introduction to Existentialist thought, The Ethics of Ambiguity simultaneously pays homage to and grapples with de Beauvoir’s French contemporaries, philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, by arguing that the freedoms of existentialism carry certain ethical responsibilities. While contemplating nihilism, surrealism, existentialism, objectivity, and human values, de Beauvoir outlines a series of “ways of being” (the adventurer, the passionate person, the lover, the artist, and the intellectual) that allows us to live up to the responsibilities of freedom.

The Emotions: Outline of a Theory by Jean-Paul Sartre
French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre attempts to understand the role emotions play in the human psyche. Sartre analyzes fear, lust, anguish, and melancholy while asserting that human beings begin to develop emotional capabilities from a very early age, which helps them identify and understand the emotions’ names and qualities later in life. Helping to complete the circle of Sartre’s many theories on existentialism, this vital piece of literature is a must-have for the philosopher-in-training’s collection.

[ATDrake]

X-link to the DRM-free thread for two Humble Bundles:

Humble Book Bundle Data Science presented by O'Reilly contains computer programming and general statistics-adjacent books.

Humble Book Bundle Electronics & Programming presented by Make: contains DIY home tech hobbyist books.

[Little.Egret]

Charles River Editors, free

The End of the Civil War: The History of the Battles and Events that Destroyed the Confederacy and Finished the War Between the States

The Liberation of Paris: The History of the World War II Campaign that Freed the French Capital from Nazi Germany

American Legends: The Life of Myrna Loy

Still Free

Tokyo Rose: The History and Legacy of Iva Toguri and Japan's Most Famous Propaganda Campaign during World War II

The Maurya Empire: The History and Legacy of Ancient India's Greatest Empire


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

[Little.Egret]

NOT FOR BEGINNERS, free

The Vegetative Key to the British Flora: A new approach to naming British vascular plants based on vegetative characters by John Poland

A new HYPERLINKED version of the Vegetative Key to the British Flora for rapid identification. Simply click on any Division or Group letter code to be taken speedily through the Key. This enables the book to be carried around in your mobile phone or other electronic device.

NB Hyperlinks are not visible on the 'Look Inside' or on samples but are fully functional on any electronic device with the Kindle app (including mobile phones, iPads, etc).

This key enables the user to easily identify any native or alien plant without flowers or fruit, with nothing more than a hand lens.

The idea has been for any diligent novice to ID a plant within three turns of a page, often identified correctly in under 30 seconds (due to the simple polychotomous keys).

The key will be invaluable to all professional and amateur botanists, ecological consultants, students and naturalists.

====================
Tablet, Phone or PC.
Print Replica, so a phone or tablet with a small screen may be unsatisfactory.


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01K5TTQBY/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01K5TTQBY/

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01K5TTQBY/

[Fluribus]

Originally Posted by Little.Egret

NOT FOR BEGINNERS, free

I am a total beginner. Downloading this book made me feel very naughty.

[Little.Egret]

Bravo Your City! series, free

Downtown Berkeley (Visit Berkeley) by BYC Editors and Emily Esguerra

North Berkeley Gourmet Ghetto (Visit Berkeley) by Michael A.E. and MiSoon Burzlaff

Lorin District & South Berkeley (Visit Berkeley) by Michael A. Estrada and MiSoon Burzlaff

Best of Berkeley (Visit Berkeley) by MiSoon Burzlaff and Danielle Torres

Berkeley Local Libations (Visit Berkeley)

Berkeley Vegetarian Dining (Visit Berkeley) by BYC Editors and Emily Esguerra

Berkeley Elmwood District (Visit Berkeley) by Michael A. Estrada and MiSoon Burzlaff

Berkeley Fourth Street (Visit Berkeley) by MiSoon Burzlaff and Heidi Unruh

West Berkeley (Visit Berkeley) by BYC Editors and Heidi Unruh


Silicon Valley Ramen Enlightenment by Randy Fung


Dublin on a Budget by Kerry Lee and Oisin Joyce

Tokyo Budget by Laura Gibbs


https://www.amazon.com/s/?url=search...er=Bravo+your*

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?url=sear...er=Bravo+your*

https://www.amazon.ca/s/?url=search-...er=Bravo+your*

[ATDrake]

X-link to the DRM-free thread for a new Humble Bundle:

Humble Book Bundle Adventure Travel presented by Lonely Planet contains travel and travel-adjacent books from the popular specialty publisher, including DIY survival guides, advice on how to be a travel writer, culture exploring cookbooks and artbooks and more.

Also, the Humble Electronics & Programming Bundle presented by Make: added 2 extra titles to the middle tier.

[ATDrake]

X-link to the DRM-free thread for a new Humble Bundle:

Humble Book Bundle Land A Tech Job For Dummies® presented by Wiley contains advice guides from the popular DIY series, not just on specific tech-related skills, but also more general job interview and career tips as well.