I like to scour Amazon on Fridays for some cheap weekend reading, usually picking up a great book or two for a few bucks that I can read through in a few of hours.
As I spend my week reading Christian books for my teaching and preaching, I’m usually on the lookout for something a bit different, often a biography about someone I’d like to know more about, perhaps a popular history book, or maybe something on leadership/time management/study techniques. Some of last week’s books are still on offer:
Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman ($2.99)
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell ($3.99)
Quiet: The Power of Quiet in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain ($2.99)
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores The Hidden SIde of Everything by Levitt & Dubner ($1.99)
Here are this week’s offers with their Amazon descriptions. I’ve read the last three but think I’ll get the “Third Reich” book for one of my summer books. The “Brain” book looks like a light and quick read that should provide me with lots of weird facts and funny stories to bore my family with.
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer ($2.99)
Shirer gives a clear, detailed and well-documented account of how it was that Adolf Hitler almost succeeded in conquering the world. With millions of copies in print, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich has become one of the most authoritative books on one of mankind’s darkest hours. Shirer focuses on 1933 to 1945 in clear detail. Here is a worldwide bestseller that also tells the true story of the Holocaust, often in the words of the men who helped plan and conduct it. It is a classic by any measure.
Welcome To Your Brain by Sandra Ammodt ($1.99)
In this funny, accessible book, we get a guided tour of our own minds, what they’re made of, how they work, and how they can go wrong. Along the way, we get a host of diagrams, quizzes, and “cocktail party tips” that shed light on the questions we nag each other about. (Can a head injury make you forget your own name? Are dolphins smarter than chimpanzees?) Fun and surprisingly engrossing, Welcome to Your Brain shows you how your brain works, and how you can make it work better.
The last three aren’t so cheap but they are still New York Times Bestsellers (and excellent reads) at less than half price!
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand ($6.99)
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE • Hailed as the top nonfiction book of the year by Time magazine • Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for biography and the Indies Choice Adult Nonfiction Book of the Year award
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg ($5)
Sandberg is the chief operating officer of Facebook and is ranked on Fortune’s list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business and as one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. If you want to know more about how our culture is changing and why, this and Jobs’ bio are must-reads.
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson ($6.99)
Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.