FREE/BARGAIN — Non-Fiction

[sufue]

My politics don't lean this way, but it's good to read widely. And now Ideas Have Consequences, by Richard M Weaver, described in its blurb as "[a] foundational text of the modern conservative movement", is on sale for $1.99 at Kindle US. It will be interesting to see how much relevance a 1948 book has (or doesn't have) to what's going on today...especially since this "expanded edition" is itself dated 2013, which seems like an eternity ago...

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FHTY1V8

Spoiler:

A foundational text of the modern conservative movement, this 1948 philosophical treatise argues the decline of Western civilization and offers a remedy.

Originally published in 1948, at the height of post–World War II optimism and confidence in collective security, Ideas Have Consequences uses “words hard as cannonballs” to present an unsparing diagnosis of the ills of the modern age. Widely read and debated at the time of its first publication, the book is now seen as one of the foundational texts of the modern conservative movement.

In its pages, Richard M. Weaver argues that the decline of Western civilization resulted from the rising acceptance of relativism over absolute reality. In spite of increased knowledge, this retreat from the realist intellectual tradition has weakened the Western capacity to reason, with catastrophic consequences for social order and individual rights. But Weaver also offers a realistic remedy. These difficulties are the product not of necessity, but of intelligent choice. And, today, as decades ago, the remedy lies in the renewed acceptance of absolute reality and the recognition that ideas—like actions—have consequences.

This expanded edition of the classic work contains a foreword by New Criterion editor Roger Kimball that offers insight into the rich intellectual and historical contexts of Weaver and his work and an afterword by Ted J. Smith III that relates the remarkable story of the book’s writing and publication.

[sufue]

The free book this month from the University of Chicago Press is Life Atomic: A History of Radioisotopes in Science and Medicine, by Angela NH Creager. It's available from this webpage, and although you have to give them your email address, they don't abuse it.

https://press.uchicago.edu/books/freeEbook.html

Unfortunately the UChi books are often PDF format only, so YMMV...

Spoiler:

After World War II, the US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) began mass-producing radioisotopes, sending out nearly 64,000 shipments of radioactive materials to scientists and physicians by 1955. Even as the atomic bomb became the focus of Cold War anxiety, radioisotopes represented the government’s efforts to harness the power of the atom for peace—advancing medicine, domestic energy, and foreign relations. In Life Atomic, Angela N. H. Creager tells the story of how these radioisotopes, which were simultaneously scientific tools and political icons, transformed biomedicine and ecology. Government-produced radioisotopes provided physicians with new tools for diagnosis and therapy, specifically cancer therapy, and enabled biologists to trace molecular transformations. Yet the government’s attempt to present radioisotopes as marvelous dividends of the atomic age was undercut in the 1950s by the fallout debates, as scientists and citizens recognized the hazards of low-level radiation.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by sufue

https://press.uchicago.edu/books/freeEbook.html

Unfortunately the UChi books are often PDF format only, so YMMV...

This one is, too.

[sufue]

Cross-post to the mystery thread for A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie by Kathryn Harkup, which is on sale for $1.99 at Kindle US: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh....php?p=4345212

[sufue]

The Making of the Modern Middle East: A Personal History by Jeremy Bowen is £0.99 right now at Kindle UK. Per the blurb, Bowen is the International Editor of the BBC, so he should know something of what he's writing about. I have a couple of long plane flights coming up, so...

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09K82TP5X

Spoiler:

A Spectator Book of the Year
A New Statesman Book of the Year
'An illuminating and riveting read’ – Jonathan Dimbleby

Jeremy Bowen, the International Editor of the BBC, has been covering the Middle East since 1989 and is uniquely placed to explain its complex past and its troubled present.

In The Making of the Modern Middle East – in part based on his acclaimed podcast, ‘Our Man in the Middle East’ – Bowen takes us on a journey across the Middle East and through its history. He meets ordinary men and women on the front line, their leaders, whether brutal or benign, and he explores the power games that have so often wreaked devastation on civilian populations as those leaders, whatever their motives, jostle for political, religious and economic control.

With his deep understanding of the political, cultural and religious differences between countries as diverse as Erdogan’s Turkey, Assad’s Syria and Netanyahu’s Israel and his long experience of covering events in the region, Bowen offers readers a gripping and invaluable guide to the modern Middle East, how it came to be and what its future might hold.

[itisbomb]

Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World
by Tim Marshall

is currently $1.99 in the US

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/prisoners-of-geography

Below is the blurb:
In this New York Times bestseller, an award-winning journalist uses ten maps of crucial regions to explain the geo-political strategies of the world powers—“fans of geography, history, and politics (and maps) will be enthralled” (Fort Worth Star-Telegram).

Maps have a mysterious hold over us. Whether ancient, crumbling parchments or generated by Google, maps tell us things we want to know, not only about our current location or where we are going but about the world in general. And yet, when it comes to geo-politics, much of what we are told is generated by analysts and other experts who have neglected to refer to a map of the place in question.

All leaders of nations are constrained by geography. In “one of the best books about geopolitics” (The Evening Standard), now updated to include 2016 geopolitical developments, journalist Tim Marshall examines Russia, China, the US, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Japan, Korea, and Greenland and the Arctic—their weather, seas, mountains, rivers, deserts, and borders—to provide a context often missing from our political reportage: how the physical characteristics of these countries affect their strengths and vulnerabilities and the decisions made by their leaders.

Offering “a fresh way of looking at maps” (The New York Times Book Review), Marshall explains the complex geo-political strategies that shape the globe. Why is Putin so obsessed with Crimea? Why was the US destined to become a global superpower? Why does China’s power base continue to expand? Why is Tibet destined to lose its autonomy? Why will Europe never be united? The answers are geographical. “In an ever more complex, chaotic, and interlinked world, Prisoners of Geography is a concise and useful primer on geopolitics” (Newsweek) and a critical guide to one of the major determining factors in world affairs.

[Section8]

Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans by Melanie Mitchell is $3.99 at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MYWPQSK

Melanie Mitchell separates science fact from science fiction in this sweeping examination of the current state of AI and how it is remaking our world

No recent scientific enterprise has proved as alluring, terrifying, and filled with extravagant promise and frustrating setbacks as artificial intelligence. The award-winning author Melanie Mitchell, a leading computer scientist, now reveals AI’s turbulent history and the recent spate of apparent successes, grand hopes, and emerging fears surrounding it.

[sufue]

Read These Banned Books: A 52-Week Reading Challenge from the American Library Association appears to be, from looking at its sample, pretty much what its title says it is. I'm not sure I'm up for a banned book each and every week, but there sure are some good ones in the list. Maybe I'll take this as a two or three year goal . It's on sale in the US ($2.99) and UK (£2.46) right now, and it's discountable at Kobo...

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B4BQYS2D
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/rea...e-banned-books
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B4BQYS2D

Spoiler:

The American Library Association presents a must-read banned book for every week of the year in this beautiful book lover's reading log.

Expand your reading list and stand against literary censorship with this one-year reading challenge and book journal! Featuring 52 modern and classic books that have been challenged or banned, from The Hunger Games to Maus, this book log includes ALA's insights into each title as well as writing prompts for further reflection. A perfect holiday stocking stuffer, birthday present, or gift for bibliophiles, librarians, teachers and educators, activists, and rebel readers of all genres!

Includes:

52 banned, censored, or challenged book recommendations and the reasons they were banned

Room to reflect on each book and how you can relate to it as you complete the challenge

Pages for your personal reading log, perfect for sharing on social media or with friends

An appendix highlighting the 100 Most Banned and Challenged Books from 2010-2019 and information about how YOU can help fight book banning.

[Sumanuil]

Originally Posted by mbovenka

This one is, too.

It only offered me a DRMed EPub or a "read in browser" option. Maybe it varies by your location?

[SomeSteve]

Non-fiction from Donald E. Westlake.

The Getaway Car: A Donald Westlake Nonfiction Miscellany is $2.99 at Amazon US and Kobo US.

https://www.amazon.com/Getaway-Car-W.../dp/B00MU1B0IS

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-getaway-car-1

[Paperbackstash]

Erle Stanley Gardner's The Court of the Last Resort is on sale for 1.99

Amazon

[GA Russell]

GenTech - $1.99

This looks interesting. The author divides American generations since 1900 not by the date of birth, but by the use of new technology..

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083XH4F4W

[salty-horse]

Free book (Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND)
Nakba and Survival: The Story of Palestinians Who Remained in Haifa and the Galilee, 1948-1956 by Adel Manna, translated by Muhammad Jenab Tutunji.

Epub/Mobi/PDF: https://luminosoa.org/site/books/m/10.1525/luminos.129/
Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B5MY3JV1

Beginning in 1948, Israeli paramilitary forces began violently displacing Palestinian Arabs from Palestine. Nakba and Survival tells the stories of Palestinians in Haifa and the Galilee during, and in the decade after, mass dispossession. Manna uses oral histories and Palestinian and Israeli archives, diaries, and memoirs to meticulously reconstruct the social history of the Palestinians who remained and returned to become Israeli citizens. This book focuses in particular on the Galilee, using the story of Manna’s own family and their village Majd al-Krum after the establishment of Israel to shed light on the cruelties faced by survivors of the military regime. While scholars of the Palestinian national movement have often studied Palestinian resistance to Israel as related to the armed struggle and the cultural struggle against the Jewish state, Manna shows that remaining in Israel under the brutality of occupation and fighting to return to Palestinian communities after displacement are acts of heroism in their own right.

[gunbad]

"Hiroshima" by John Hersey is on sale for $1.99. According to eReaderIQ this is only the second time it's been this price since 2019.

Kobo

[sufue]

Killers of the Flower Moon: Oil, Money, Murder and the Birth of the FBI, by David Grann, is £0.99 at Kindle UK for a few more hours, as part of today's Daily Deal. Although this is non-fiction, per its blurb, it actually won an Edgar for "Best Fact Crime". And, of course, has been made into a somewhat famous movie ...

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0112O5G88

Spoiler:

WINNER OF THE EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST FACT CRIME
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN NON-FICTION
SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION
**SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE DIRECTED BY MARTIN SCORSESE STARRING LEONARDO DICAPRIO AND ROBERT DE NIRO**

‘A riveting true story of greed, serial murder and racial injustice’ JON KRAKAUER
‘A fiercely entertaining mystery story and a wrenching exploration of evil’ KATE ATKINSON
‘A fascinating account of a tragic and forgotten chapter in the history of the American West’ JOHN GRISHAM

From the bestselling author of The Lost City of Z, now a major film starring Charlie Hunnam, Sienna Miller and Robert Pattison, and the Number One international bestseller The Wager, comes a true-life murder story which became one of the FBI’s first major homicide investigations.

In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, they rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions and sent their children to study in Europe.

Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. As the death toll climbed, the FBI took up the case. But the bureau badly bungled the investigation. In desperation, its young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to unravel the mystery. Together with the Osage he and his undercover team began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.