Small publisher Coffeetown Press, located in Seattle, is apparently trying for a big splash in the Kindle store. They just made several of their titles free (presumably for one to five days, under KDP rules) and those who read academic non-fiction (their specialty) or historical fiction are sure to find at least one or two worth grabbing (although at least one is more humor/men's adventure than anything else).
A Reader's Companion to J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, by Peter Beidler
Book Description
This second edition of Peter G. Beidler's Readers Companion builds on the success of the first edition. It will be an indispensable guide for teachers, students, and general readers who want fully to appreciate Salinger's perennial bestseller. Now six decades old, The Catcher in the Rye contains references to people, places, books, movies, and historical events that will puzzle many twenty-first century readers. This edition includes a new section on reactions to Salinger's death in January, 2010.
Beidler provides some 250 explanations to help readers make sense of the culture through which Holden Caulfield stumbles as he comes of age. He provides a map showing the various stops in Holden’s Manhattan odyssey. Of particular interest to readers whose native language is not English is his glossary of more than a hundred terms, phrases, and slang expressions.
In his introductory essay, “Catching The Catcher in the Rye,” Beidler discusses such topics as the three-day time line for the novel, the way the novel grew out of two earlier-published short stories, the extent to which the novel is autobiographical, what Holden looks like, and the reasons for the enduring appeal of the novel.
The many photographs in the Reader’s Companion give fascinating glimpses into the world that Holden has made famous. Beidler also provides discussion of some of the issues that have engaged scholars down through the years: the meaning of Holden’s red hunting hat, whether Holden writes his novel in an insane asylum, Mr. Antolini’s troubling actions, and Holden’s close relationship with his sister and his two brothers.
Risk Teaching: Reflections from Inside and Outside the Classroom, by Peter G. Beidler (same author as above, but with initial used)
Book Description
Must we always teach from the inside of a classroom? Do periodic exams encourage learning as well as daily quizzes do? Do you schedule individual conferences with each student at the start of the term? Is lecturing an effective way to teach? If a student falls in love with you—or vice versa—are you doing something right or something wrong? If you have a pedagogical idea that will probably fail, should you try it anyhow? How do we know when it is time to retire from a profession we love? Such questions may make readers uncomfortable, but they may also lead them to change the way they think about the profession. Teachers may reconsider their methods, causing students to reconsider their attitudes. In choosing the title Risk Teaching, Peter G. Beidler hopes to convey multiple meanings of the word “risk.” “Risk” the verb, as in “take a chance on an amazing profession.” “Risk” the adjective, as in “risky”—teaching that diverges from the safe and traditional path. “Risk” the noun, as in “teach students to take risks” and learn outside their comfort zones. Beidler's book, like his teaching, is saucy, innovative, and challenging.
The Addiction of Mary Todd Lincoln, by Anne Beidler (I'd say it's safe to assume a relationship with the author above)
Book Description
Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of the president we have immortalized, has always been difficult for us to understand. She could appear poised and brilliant one moment, yet rude and ugly the next. Sometimes competent and strong, able to entertain dignitaries from around the world, at other times she appeared dependent and weak. At times she seemed utterly beside herself with sobbing and screaming.
Historians have mostly avoided saying very much about Mary Todd Lincoln except in reference to her husband, Abraham. To many it would seem that Mary Todd Lincoln is still an embarrassment in the tragic story of her martyred husband. But Mary Todd Lincoln lived her own tragic story even before Abraham was murdered. She was an addict, addicted to the opiates she needed for her migraine headaches.
Seeing Mary Todd Lincoln as an addict helps us understand her and give her the compassion and admiration she deserves. In her time there had been no courageous First Lady like Betty Ford to help people understand the power of addiction. There was no treatment center. In Mary Todd Lincoln’s time there were many addicts at all levels of society, as there are now, but it was a more socially acceptable condition for men to have than for women. More importantly, addiction was not very well understood, and it was often mistreated.
Because Mary Todd Lincoln’s only surviving son, Robert Lincoln, made a great effort to protect his mother and his family from journalists and historians, he intentionally destroyed most of Mary Todd Lincoln’s medical records and many of her letters. What he could not destroy, however, is the record of Mary Todd Lincoln’s pain and the record of how she behaved while living with this pain.
In The Addiction of Mary Todd Lincoln, we can see clearly, for the first time, what Mary Todd Lincoln had to live with and the courage it took for her to carry on.
Eating Owen, by Anne Beidler
Book Description
In the autumn of 1819, the unthinkable happened. Out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean a whale rammed into the Essex, sinking it within minutes. (The event that helped inspire Moby-Dick.)
The crew had no refuge except to jump in the three small and very flimsy wooden boats they carried on board to help them chase the whales. So during the the next three months, bobbing around aimlessly out there on the ocean, the men suffered terribly. They ran out of food to eat and some of them died.
And some of them ate each other. Including Owen.
The few survivors returned to Nantucket with the story that Owen had been fairly elected to be executed--before he was eaten. But no one knows for sure what happened. Or do we?
Eating Owen is the story of Owen Coffin and his family before the Essex tragedy. It is a story about a family, a story about surviving and not surviving. A story about a whale’s revenge.
Sacred Ground & Holy Water: One Man's Adventures in the Wild, by Lyn Fuchs
Book Description
Sacred Ground and Holy Water, the first book by writer and professor Lyn Fuchs, is a collection of travel stories filled with humor, tragedy, adventure, sexual innuendo, and spiritual insight. Lyn should be called Lyndiana Jones. He has survived enraged grizzlies, erupting volcanoes, Japanese swordfights, and giant squid tentacles. He has been entrapped by FBI agents and held at gunpoint by renegade soldiers. He has sung with Bulgaria’s bluesmaster Vasko the Patch and met with Mexico’s Zapatista Army commander Marcos. He has been thrown out of forbidden temples in southern India and passed out in sweat lodges off the Alaskan coast. His navel has been inhabited by beetles and his genitals have been cursed by eunuchs. He has shared coffee with presidents, beer with pirates, and goat guts with polygamists. He has contracted malaria, typhoid, salmonella, and lovesickness around the world.
Entry-Level, by Bobby Casella
Book Description
A "deranged young professional" is hell-bent on making a million bucks because he thinks life without money is not worth living. Entry-Level is an outrageous and ultimately heart-warming adventure comedy about a young man's battle with cynicism.
Infinite Ideas has added another small batch of free books in the Kindle store, which are likely to be free all month. List prices on these are all over the place, ranging from under two dollars to about $8 (presumably for longer materials). These are the one that are new (there are a number of duplicates from past freebie lists - click the cover image to get the full list).
