Secondhand History & Culture Bargain Book Box SP2809

Secondhand History & Culture Bargain Book Box SP2809

A lively mixed non-fiction box spanning popular science, history, travel, politics, and memoir. Susan Greenfield's guided tour of the human brain and Eric Temple Bell's Magic of Numbers anchor the science thread; Otto English's Fake History and Bruce Henderson's Fatal North cover opposite ends of historical drama. Noel Pearson's Quarterly Essay A Rightful Place and Jon Ronson's Out of the Ordinary represent the contemporary essay and journalism end, with Peter Moore's Full Montezuma and Paul Hyland's The Black Heart providing the travel writing.

1. The Black Heart — Paul Hyland — A British travel writer's journey through the Congo following in the footsteps of Roger Casement; a layered account of one of Africa's most troubled landscapes.
2. Gas Smells Awful: The Mechanics of Being a Notstar — Helen Razer — The Australian writer and broadcaster's irreverent memoir about life outside the celebrity machine; acerbic, funny, and distinctly Razer.
3. The Human Brain: A Guided Tour — Susan Greenfield — The Oxford neuroscientist's accessible account of how the brain works; popular science at its clearest and most engaging.
4. The Magic of Numbers — Eric Temple Bell — A popular history of mathematics tracing the lives and ideas behind the great numbers and the people who discovered them; Bell was both a mathematician and a born storyteller.
5. The Grammar Bible — Michael Strumpf and Auriel Douglas — A comprehensive reference guide to English grammar covering parts of speech, punctuation, and usage; organised for easy consultation and plainly written throughout.
6. Agent Extraordinaire: The Story of Michel Hollard — George Martelli — The biography of the French resistance hero who uncovered the V1 rocket launch sites in Normandy and delivered the intelligence to Britain; one of the war's most remarkable espionage stories.
7. Days That Changed the World: The 50 Defining Events of World History — Hywel Williams — A chronological survey of history's pivotal moments, from the ancient world through the 20th century; concise and well-chosen.
8. Beneath the Fig Leaves: A Memoir of Food, Family and Greece — Olympia Panagiotopoulos — A memoir weaving together Greek food traditions, family history, and the experience of living between two cultures; warm and richly evocative.
9. A Rightful Place — Noel Pearson — The Indigenous Australian lawyer and leader's landmark Quarterly Essay arguing for constitutional recognition and a more complete Commonwealth; a defining intervention in Australian political debate.
10. World War II Day by Day — General Editor Peter Darman — A Military Handbooks chronological record of the Second World War with photographs and maps; a solid day-by-day reference volume.
11. Fatal North — Bruce Henderson — The story of the disastrous USS Polaris expedition of 1871, America's first attempt to reach the North Pole; murder, mutiny, and survival on the Arctic ice.
12. The Banned List: A Manifesto Against Jargon and Cliché — John Rentoul — The political journalist's entertaining polemic against vague, overused, and meaningless language; a sharp and funny guide to clearer thought and writing.
13. Killer Germs — A popular science account of microbes and the diseases that have shaped human history; written for general readers with no background in biology.
14. Fake History: Ten Great Lies and How They Shaped the World — Otto English — A lively debunking of popular historical myths; from national founding legends to heroic figures, English exposes the fabrications beneath the stories we tell ourselves.
15. Hustlers, Beats and Others — Ned Polsky — The sociologist's firsthand study of pool hustlers, jazz musicians, and other subcultures at the margins of mainstream American society; a Pelican classic of participant-observation fieldwork.
16. Out of the Ordinary: True Tales of Everyday Craziness — Jon Ronson — The journalist's collection of extraordinary stories drawn from ordinary life; Ronson's characteristic blend of empathy, curiosity, and dark humour.
17. The Full Montezuma: Around Central America and the Caribbean with the Girl Next Door — Peter Moore — A travel memoir following the author and his girlfriend on a budget trip through Central America; funny, self-deprecating, and sharply observed.