FREE/BARGAIN — Non-Fiction

[murraypaul]

(I assume autobiographies should go here, I couldn't see anywhere more appropriate)
Racing Through the Dark: The Fall and Rise of David Millar is 99p at Amazon UK.
https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0053YQDIG

By his eighteenth birthday David Millar was living and racing in France, sleeping in rented rooms, tipped to be the next English-speaking Tour winner. A year later he'd realised the dream and signed a professional contract. He perhaps lived the high life a little too enthusiastically - he broke his heel in a fall from a roof after too much drink, and before long the pressure to succeed had tipped over into doping. Here, in a full and frank autobiography, David Millar recounts the story from the inside: he doped because 'cycling's drug culture was like white noise', and because of peer pressure. 'I doped for money and glory in order to guarantee the continuation of my status.' Five years on from his arrest, Millar is clean and reflective, and holds nothing back in this account of his dark years.

[sufue]

Another Mark Kurlansky (Salt and 1968 are previously mentioned in this thread) title is part of the US Kindle Daily Deal at $2.99, not matched at Kobo, at least as of now.

Milk!: A 10,000-Year Food Fracas: https://www.amazon.com/Milk-10-000-Y...dp/B077ZFR3RQ/

Spoiler:

Mark Kurlansky's first global food history since the bestselling Cod and Salt; the fascinating cultural, economic, and culinary story of milk and all things dairy--with recipes throughout.

According to the Greek creation myth, we are so much spilt milk; a splatter of the goddess Hera's breast milk became our galaxy, the Milky Way. But while mother's milk may be the essence of nourishment, it is the milk of other mammals that humans have cultivated ever since the domestication of animals more than 10,000 years ago, originally as a source of cheese, yogurt, kefir, and all manner of edible innovations that rendered lactose digestible, and then, when genetic mutation made some of us lactose-tolerant, milk itself.

Before the industrial revolution, it was common for families to keep dairy cows and produce their own milk. But during the nineteenth century mass production and urbanization made milk safety a leading issue of the day, with milk-borne illnesses a common cause of death. Pasteurization slowly became a legislative matter. And today milk is a test case in the most pressing issues in food politics, from industrial farming and animal rights to GMOs, the locavore movement, and advocates for raw milk, who controversially reject pasteurization.

Profoundly intertwined with human civilization, milk has a compelling and a surprisingly global story to tell, and historian Mark Kurlansky is the perfect person to tell it. Tracing the liquid's diverse history from antiquity to the present, he details its curious and crucial role in cultural evolution, religion, nutrition, politics, and economics.

[sufue]

Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak was, per the blurb, both an Edgar Award Winner for Best Biography and a Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year. It has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle US as part of the Daily Deal, matched at Kobo US (VIP/couponable).

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/Girl-Sleuth-N...dp/B007PRF0LU/
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/girl-sleuth-1

Spoiler:

The true story behind the iconic fictional detective is “a fascinating chapter in the history of publishing” (The Seattle Times).

An Edgar Award Winner for Best Biography and a Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year

The plucky “titian-haired” sleuth solved her first mystery in 1930—and eighty million books later, Nancy Drew has survived the Depression, World War II, and the sixties (when she was taken up with a vengeance by women’s libbers) to enter the pantheon of American culture. As beloved by girls today as she was by their grandmothers, Nancy Drew has both inspired and reflected the changes in her readers’ lives. Here, in a narrative with all the page-turning pace of Nancy’s adventures, Melanie Rehak solves an enduring literary mystery: Who created Nancy Drew? And how did she go from pulp heroine to icon?

The brainchild of children’s book mogul Edward Stratemeyer, Nancy was brought to life by two women: Mildred Wirt Benson, a pioneering journalist from Iowa, and Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, a well-bred wife and mother who took over her father’s business empire as CEO. In this century-spanning, “absorbing and delightful” story, the author traces their roles—and Nancy’s—in forging the modern American woman (The Wall Street Journal).

“It’s truly fun to see behind the scenes of the girl sleuth’s creation.” —Publishers Weekly

“As much a social history of the times as a book about the popular series . . . Those who followed the many adventures of Nancy Drew and her friends will be fascinated with the behind-the-scenes stories of just who Carolyn Keene really was.” —School Library Journal

“Sheds light on perhaps the most successful writing franchise of all time and also the cultural and historic changes through which it passed. Grab your flashlights, girls. The mystery of Carolyn Keene is about to begin.” —Karen Joy Fowler

[sufue]

The Borgias and Their Enemies, 1431–1519 by Christopher Hibbert is a US Kindle Daily Deal at $1.99, matched (and coupon/VIPable) at Kobo US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/Borgias-Their...dp/B003UV8ZV2/
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the...es-1431-1519-2

Spoiler:

This colorful history of a powerful family brings the world they lived in—the glittering Rome of the Italian Renaissance—to life.

The name Borgia is synonymous with the corruption, nepotism, and greed that were rife in Renaissance Italy. The powerful, voracious Rodrigo Borgia, better known to history as Pope Alexander VI, was the central figure of the dynasty. Two of his seven papal offspring also rose to power and fame—Lucrezia Borgia, his daughter, whose husband was famously murdered by her brother, and that brother, Cesare, who inspired Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince.

Notorious for seizing power, wealth, land, and titles through bribery, marriage, and murder, the dynasty’s dramatic rise from its Spanish roots to its occupation of the highest position in Renaissance society forms a gripping tale.

From the author of The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici and other acclaimed works, The Borgias and Their Enemies is “a fascinating read” (Library Journal).

[GtrsRGr8]

My cyber-hero (after tubemonkey, of course ), Kim Komando, has a piece on her website about _free_ ebooks that Microsoft is offering.

I think that I remember that, in years gone by, Microsoft gave away ebooks without any conditions (aside from the usual--surrender an email address, etc.). Well, we've got to live in the present, not in the past, and those days may be gone forever--Microsoft imposes a few conditions on these "free" ebooks. However, I don't consider them oppressive. YMMV.

There's no real use in me saying much more. My second-place cyber-hero pretty much says it all, at https://www.komando.com/downloads/49...0-11-article-a.

[Dngrsone]

Huh. I didn't know that Kim was still around.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by Dngrsone

Huh. I didn't know that Kim was still around.

Very much so, I think. Still has the radio show (on Saturday, mornings I think). Does a _USA Today_ column (I don't know how frequently). She's got the website. I highly recommend her show for newbies, especially--if you are one, you'll learn a lot just listening to her show.

Of course, she couldn't do it all by herself. You can believe that she's got a crew that's busy finding stuff for her to say and write. She may claim to be "your digital goddess," but that's stretching it more than a little bit.

I'm most familiar with the radio show; not at all familiar with the _USA Today column_. Strangely, she may have some difficulty getting people to call into her show, though. I get an email from "her," seemingly every Friday, trying to get people to call and submit questions for her Saturday show.

[Little.Egret]

Endeavour, Free

The English Bible and the Seventeenth Century Revolution
by Christopher Hill

The Bible may be the most important book ever written.

But in 17th-century England it was also a radical document.

In this brilliant history Christopher Hill analyses the importance of the Bible to the life of England in the period after it became widely printed and read.

Christopher Hill (1912-2003) was a university lecturer in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century history, and from 1965 to 1978 he was Master of Balliol College. His many books and textbooks include ‘Milton and the English Revolution’ and ‘Liberty Against the Law’.

First published 1993 by Penguin Books

https://www.amazon.com/English-Bible...dp/B00PUVC94O/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/English-Bib...dp/B00PUVC94O/

https://www.amazon.ca/English-Bible-...dp/B00PUVC94O/

[Dngrsone]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

Very much so, I think. Still has the radio show (on Saturday, mornings I think). Does a _USA Today_ column (I don't know how frequently). She's got the website. I highly recommend her show for newbies, especially--if you are one, you'll learn a lot just listening to her show.

Of course, she couldn't do it all by herself. You can believe that she's got a crew that's busy finding stuff for her to say and write. She may claim to be "your digital goddess," but that's stretching it more than a little bit.

I'm most familiar with the radio show; not at all familiar with the _USA Today column_. Strangely, she may have some difficulty getting people to call into her show, though. I get an email from "her," seemingly every Friday, trying to get people to call and submit questions for her Saturday show.

I moved beyond her simplistic advice long ago. I stopped reading her columns when I realized that she other people writing for her.

[sufue]

Another one that is a little hard to categorize: Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II: Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel isn't just the cartoons, but also includes commentary/context about the cartoons by Richard H. Minear and an intro by Art Spiegelman, so it seems more like a history book - which is where Kindle has it, although in "Military History Pictorials", not straight history - than a comic book. So, I'm posting it here.

Kindle US (Daily Deal): https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Seuss-Goes...dp/B00EXCAJ8E/
Kobo US (coupon/VIPable): https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/dr-seuss-goes-to-war-2

Spoiler:

“A fascinating collection” of wartime cartoons from the beloved children’s author and illustrator (The New York Times Book Review).

For decades, readers throughout the world have enjoyed the marvelous stories and illustrations of Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. But few know the work Geisel did as a political cartoonist during World War II, for the New York daily newspaper PM. In these extraordinarily trenchant cartoons, Geisel presents “a provocative history of wartime politics” (Entertainment Weekly). Dr. Seuss Goes to War features handsome, large-format reproductions of more than two hundred of Geisel’s cartoons, alongside “insightful” commentary by the historian Richard H. Minear that places them in the context of the national climate they reflect (Booklist).

Pulitzer Prize–winner Art Spiegelman’s introduction places Seuss firmly in the pantheon of the leading political cartoonists of our time.

“A shocker—this cat is not in the hat!” —Studs Terkel

[GtrsRGr8]

John Muir and the Ice That Started a Fire: How a Visionary and the Glaciers of Alaska Changed America.

Why do I think that it is really, really good book? 4.6 stars at Amazon, the "#1 best seller (pssst! Hey Amazon: "#1" and "best" are redundant) at Amazon in "Adventurer & Explorer Biographies."

Why do I say that it is a really, real great deal? It's got a print list price of $18.95, but the Kindle price right now is 99 cents.

And this is no pamphlet or booklet, with its 266 pages.

https://www.amazon.com/John-Muir-That-Started-Fire-ebook/dp/B00MJD9NOK

[sufue]

The Weirder Side Of Paris: A Guide to 101 Bizarre, Bloodstained, or Macabre Sights, From the Merely Eccentric to the Downright Ghoulish is pretty much what it says it is. It looks to be a self-pub, but it's by Susanne Alleyn, whose Aristide Ravel mystery series I've really enjoyed, and I did check out the Kindle sample to make sure it's not loaded with editing errors, or just totally bizarre, and it's not. I liked the intro to the book and the first couple of "entries". Weirder Side has dropped to $0.99 at Kindle US, which is why I noticed it, since I have Alleyn on my eReaderIQ list, but then I checked Smashwords, since Alleyn's Ravel series is avialable there, and lo-and-behold, Weirder Side is free at Smashwords, and also at Kobo US. So...take your pick...

I'm a huge francophile, so this one is going to float right to the top of my TBR list.

Kindle US (if you really want to pay $0.99): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07483KKWT
Kobo US (free): https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the...right-ghoulish
Smashwords (many formats, DRM free): https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/738197

P.S. If you're maybe interested in Alleyn's historical Ravel mystery series, the first title is a long-term freebie at several retailers. See this post: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh....php?p=3761434

[Little.Egret]

UK Daily Deal - each 99p



LEON Happy One-pot Cooking (Happy Leons)

Leon: Fast Vegetarian

LEON Happy Salads (Happy Leons)


https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/browse...oreType=ebooks

[Little.Egret]

Charles River Editors, free

Ra: The History and Legacy of the Ancient Egyptian God of the Sun

The Rise of Constantinople: The Ancient History of the City that Became the Byzantine Empire’s Capital

Oregon Country: The History and Legacy of the Disputed Region and the Treaty that Led to Oregon’s Statehood

Horace Greeley: The Life and Legacy of 19th Century America’s Most Influential Edito

America’s Deadliest Hurricanes: The History of the Three Worst Hurricanes in American History

https://www.amazon.com/s/?url=search...+river+editors

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?url=sear...+river+editors

https://www.amazon.ca/s/?url=search-...+river+editors

[Apache]

The Saga of Pappy Gunn by George Churchill Kenney
Currently Free in the US.

Paul Irvin "Pappy" Gunn (October 18, 1899 – October 11, 1957) was a United States naval aviator known mainly for his actions in the Second World War as an officer in the United States Army Air Forces. He was known as "an expert in dare-devil low-level flying,"[1] and recognized for numerous feats of heroism and mechanical ingenuity, especially modifications to the Douglas A-20 Havoc light bomber and B-25 Mitchell medium bomber that turned them into attack aircraft.

https://www.amazon.com/Saga-Pappy-Ge...=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Apache