In Darwin’s Armdada: Four Voyages and the Battle for the Theory of Evolution* cultural historian Iain McCalman tells the stories of Charles Darwin and his staunchest supporters: Joseph Hooker, Thomas Huxley, and Alfred Wallace. Beginning with the somber morning of April 26, 1882—the day of Darwin’s funeral—Darwin’s Armada steps back and recounts the lives and scientific discoveries of each of these explorers, who campaigned passionately in the war of ideas over evolution and advanced the scope of Darwin’s work.

This week’s most likely to be banned AND cheap on Kindle*: Born A Crime by Trevor Noah.

Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.

Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.

All That Remains: A Renowned Forensic Scientist on Death, Mortality, and Solving Crimes* by Sue Black.

Dame Sue Black is an internationally renowned forensic anthropologist and human anatomist. She has lived her life eye to eye with the Grim Reaper, and she writes vividly about it in this book, which is part primer on the basics of identifying human remains, part frank memoir of a woman whose first paying job as a schoolgirl was to apprentice in a butcher shop, and part no-nonsense but deeply humane introduction to the reality of death in our lives. It is a treat for CSI junkies, murder mystery and thriller readers, and anyone seeking a clear-eyed guide to a subject that touches us all.

Crocodile on the Sandbank* is the first in the Amelia Peabody series, by Elizabeth Peters. Peabody is a highly unreliable narrator who is married to a famous but not brilliant archaeologist. This is a combination of Agatha Christie and Monte Python. Sort of. Anyway, check out this first one and if you like them, find the rest somewhere.

Two books by Jane Goodall that I’ve not read but people like Jane Goodall and these are cheap right now:

Reason For Hope*

Seeds of Hope*

A lot of hope going on there..

My close personal friend Eric Holthaus’s book The Future Earth* is under two bucks, very worth it!

I might have two things mixed up here. Anyway, cheap in Kindle form:

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat*

In his most extraordinary book, the bestselling author of Awakenings and “poet laureate of medicine” (The New York Times) recounts the case histories of patients inhabiting the compelling world of neurological disorders, from those who are no longer able to recognize common objects to those who gain extraordinary new skills.

Featuring a new preface, Oliver Sacks’s The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat tells the stories of individuals afflicted with perceptual and intellectual disorders: patients who have lost their memories and with them the greater part of their pasts; who are no longer able to recognize people and common objects; whose limbs seem alien to them; who lack some skills yet are gifted with uncanny artistic or mathematical talents. In Dr. Sacks’s splendid and sympathetic telling, his patients are deeply human and his tales are studies of struggles against incredible adversity. A great healer, Sacks never loses sight of medicine’s ultimate responsibility: “the suffering, afflicted, fighting human subject.”

I Robot*

This classic science fiction masterwork by Isaac Asimov weaves stories about robots, humanity, and the deep questions of existence into a novel of shocking intelligence and heart.

I, Robot, the first and most widely read book in Asimov’s Robot series, forever changed the world’s perception of artificial intelligence. Here are stories of robots gone mad, of mind-reading robots, and robots with a sense of humor. Of robot politicians, and robots who secretly run the world—all told with the dramatic blend of science fact and science fiction that has become Asimov’s trademark.

For your consideration:

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress*

The Disappearing Spoon*

Currently available cheap in the US and maybe more broadly and more longly but not likely so:

Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson cheap for Kindle*

The Complete Brigadier Gerard cheap for Kindle* by Arthur Conand Doyle (not Sherlock Holmes stories).

The original novel MASH* also cheap for Kindle.

Everybody but you read this when it first came out, now is your chance to do it cheap: SYNC*

Shawn Otto’s The War on Science: Who’s Waging It, Why It Matters, What We Can Do About It is currently available cheap on Kindle. This is a must read, and very relevant.