FREE/BARGAIN — Non-Fiction

[issybird]

A biography of the novelist Richard Yates, most recently running over $23 after jumping up from a long stretch at $14.99, is down to $2.99:

https://www.amazon.com/Tragic-Honest...dp/B00D6KO8SG/

I must admit I'd never heard of it until running across it while looking at something else by the author in question, as you do, but the reviews are good and it sounds fascinating, an examination of the tragic life of an artist within the zeitgeist of many American alcoholic writers. I'm a huge fan of Revolutionary Road; I couldn't resist.

Same price at Kobo, which is where I bought it.

[Crossposting to fiction.]

[pdurrant]

When Gavin Met Stacey and Everything in Between by James Corden and Ruth Jones is currently £1.99 a Amazon UK and Kobo UK:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0857507443
https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/whe...g-in-between-1

"When Gavin Met Stacey and Everything in Between is the story of how Ruth and James turned their little show about ordinary life into a full-on cultural phenomenon.

As they recount the highs and lows they faced along the way, Ruth and James explore the journey of their real-life friendship, the making of the show and the relationship between Nessa and Smithy that had the nation glued to their screens."

[WashWest]

My first post using the salty-horse template!

The Last Boy by Jane Leavy is $3 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

Award-winning sports writer Jane Leavy follows her New York Times runaway bestseller Sandy Koufax with the definitive biography of baseball icon Mickey Mantle.

The legendary Hall-of-Fame outfielder was a national hero during his record-setting career with the New York Yankees, but public revelations of alcoholism, infidelity, and family strife badly tarnished the ballplayer's reputation in his latter years.

In The Last Boy, Leavy plumbs the depths of the complex athlete, using copious first-hand research as well as her own memories, to show why The Mick remains the most beloved and misunderstood Yankee slugger of all time.

[WashWest]

More baseball books! Here are two recent ones from the University of Nebraska Press. On sale at Amazon, but not Kobo, it seems. Thanks, salty-horse, for the template!

1978: Baseball and America in the Disco Era by David Krell is $3 in the US (Amazon)

Americans struggled to find their footing in the late 1970s. The Vietnam War ended with more than fifty-eight thousand American soldiers’ deaths; the public’s trust in politicians plummeted amid the Watergate scandal. As deadly blizzards ripped through the Midwest and Northeast in early 1978 and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, Americans turned to baseball for the welcome distraction and promise of a new season.

From spring training to the World Series, 1978 gave baseball fans one of the sport’s greatest seasons, full of legendary moments like the battle between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox for the American League East pennant, Gaylord Perry’s three thousandth strikeout, Tom Seaver’s only career no-hitter, Willie McCovey’s five hundredth home run, and Pete Rose’s marathon forty-four-game hitting streak. The 1978 season played out against a backdrop of disco music, bell-bottom pants, and gas-guzzling cars, while Hollywood answered a desperate longing for a simpler time with nostalgic offerings such as Grease, The Buddy Holly Story, American Hot Wax, Animal House, and Superman. Robin Williams became a household name with a guest appearance on the popular TV show Happy Days, Atlantic City debuted its first casino, and Jill Clayburgh symbolized the emerging independence of women in An Unmarried Woman.

In a memorable end to the baseball season, Reggie Jackson and Bucky Dent led the Yankees to their second consecutive World Series over the Dodgers after losing the first two games, then winning four in a row. With a month-by-month approach, David Krell breaks down major events in both baseball and American culture at large in 1978, chronicling in novelistic detail the notable achievements of some of the greatest players of the era, along with some of the national pastime’s quirkiest moments, to capture an extraordinary year in baseball.

One More for the White Rat: The 1987 St. Louis Cardinals Chase the Pennant by Doug Feldmann is $2 in the US (Amazon)

Despite being picked to finish dead last in the National League’s Eastern Division, the 1985 St. Louis Cardinals astounded the sports world by winning 101 regular-season games, capturing the pennant, and playing in the World Series. With expectations greatly elevated going forward, manager Whitey Herzog and his team subsequently endured a rash of injuries and poor performances from key players that sent the 1986 season into a tailspin. The veteran skipper had never seen the likes of it before in his professional baseball career, and he even considered tendering his resignation midyear to team owner August A. Busch Jr. Herzog was uncertain which version of the ball club would surface entering 1987, as their clash for divisional honors with the New York Mets was rekindled once again.

Though observers at the start of the 1987 season once again gave them no chance to win their division, the Cardinals chased victory. Herzog’s style of play, nicknamed “Whiteyball,” terrorized opponents with its daring baserunning led by Vince Coleman and Ozzie Smith. Veteran players and newcomers, including Jack Clark and Tony Peña, returned the Cardinals to contention.

One More for the White Rat features contemporary interviews with members of the 1987 Cardinals and compelling stories and colorful insights into that incredible summer. Veteran Cardinals author Doug Feldmann takes the reader inside the St. Louis locker room and onto the field for the daily struggles and triumphs that made the 1987 baseball season unlike any other.

[WashWest]

I've heard good things about this, but haven't read it yet. An excerpt from the book is on Lit Hub

I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki (I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki) by Baek Sehee is $3 in the US (Amazon)

The New York Times bestselling therapy memoir translated by International Booker shortlistee Anton Hur.

PSYCHIATRIST: So how can I help you?

ME: I don't know, I'm-what's the word-depressed? Do I have to go into detail?

Baek Sehee is a successful young social media director at a publishing house when she begins seeing a psychiatrist about her-what to call it?-depression? She feels persistently low, anxious, endlessly self-doubting, but also highly judgmental of others. She hides her feelings well at work, but the effort is exhausting, overwhelming, and keeps her from forming deep relationships. This can't be normal. But if she's so hopeless, why can she always summon a desire for her favorite street food: the hot, spicy rice cake, tteokbokki? Is this just what life is like?

Recording her dialogues with her psychiatrist over a twelve-week period, and expanding on each session with her own reflective micro-essays, Baek begins to disentangle the harmful behaviors that keep her locked in a cycle of self-abuse. Part memoir, part self-help book,I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki is the first book in a duology to keep close and to reach for in times of darkness.

[Quoth]

Free from NASA.
Science ebooks or PDFs, even for kids.

https://science.nasa.gov/multimedia/science-e-books/

[Martinoptic]

Nice - thanks.

[Martinoptic]

University of Chicago Press are offering Between Mao and McCarty as their free monthly ebook.

Spoiler:

During the Cold War, Chinese Americans struggled to gain political influence in the United States. Considered potentially sympathetic to communism, their communities attracted substantial public and government scrutiny, particularly in San Francisco and New York.

Between Mao and McCarthy looks at the divergent ways that Chinese Americans in these two cities balanced domestic and international pressures during the tense Cold War era. On both coasts, Chinese Americans sought to gain political power and defend their civil rights, yet only the San Franciscans succeeded. Forging multiracial coalitions and encouraging voting and moderate activism, they avoided the deep divisions and factionalism that consumed their counterparts in New York. Drawing on extensive research in both Chinese- and English-language sources, Charlotte Brooks uncovers the complex, diverse, and surprisingly vibrant politics of an ethnic group trying to find its voice and flex its political muscle in Cold War America.