Peter Nicholson Books

There is no black and white here, hence my title. That ominous music can be a bit overkill at times (though, few!). What makes this show so dynamic is the psycological profiles of the criminals and even Goren and Eames themselves. The well-written crime drama of today is displays the humanity of good and evil, hero and villian and CI does just that! I prefer Mike Logan on the regular L&O. His character was way more interesting on that show. Hands down, the earlier Goren/Eames episodes are the best - those endings are reminiscent of great theatre!

This is my favorite of all the other L&Os, and after the death of Goren's mom, it's just getting better. Each ep. shows how much closer he is too the edge. The last ep were he went undercover was great, I can't wait for it to come back on. Also I wish they would release more of the shows on dvd.

I am getting caught up on seasons 5 and 6 this winter. I can't believe how astounding the performances are by Katherine Erbe and Vincent D'Onofrio. I am compelled and even uncomfortable at times watching, and I am seldom moved by television performances as I am by these actors.

I watch the Goren/Eames team episodes first (OF COURSE) and the Logan/[insert new partner here]episodes second. I am less affected by those episodes, but they are interesting none the less.

I have not watched ALL of these shows. I absolutely love LOCI. I have watched L&O for years since the beginning. When I was in FL taking care of my brother, I was introduced to LOSVU and fell in love, but I have to say that LOCI is my favorite. The two main characters are perfect and I would not change them. I do like Noth however and like that they brought him back into the fold, but katherine erbe and d'ornofrio are the best. he has such a way for this character. Something that I haven't seen in any other series. Now, I already like the CLOSER, and the new Saving GRACE along with my Law and Order shoes. I wish I was rich cause I would be downloading ALL of them. 6 stars!

I have never seen a TV series with better characterization and writing. For well turned psychological drama, this series is the best. The writers deliver scripts that expose the human underbelly of criminals, showing us how real people, even ones who might live next door to us, can cross the line between simply being dysfunctional and committing murder. The actors present it in a way we can all recognize. I've always been fascinated with criminal psychology and the writers/actors/producers of this show explore it for us in a very entertaining way. I often finish an episode thinking to myself, "Wow... that situation sure reminds me of so and so." Disturbing, but mesmerizing.

I have read litterally hundreds of books on WWII but this is one of the first on WW1. What a way to start. This book is really outstanding. I am about 3/4 of the way through and its still a great read and I have a hard time putting it down. The attention to detail is awesome, with the best part being the gripping natatives from the soldiers themselves. This book literally leaves the reader speachless at the horror of this battle. This book is amust-have for someone who wants to understand what WW1 was like for the average foot soldier in the trenches.

Many bloody battles have a moment, often commemorated in a painting, of a glorious death or act of defiance that makes the bloodletting and terror bearable, at least in retrospect. Napoleon leading his men across the bridge at Arcole, Armistead reaching for the Federal guns at Gettysburg, McAulliffe responding "Nuts" to the demand for surrender.

The Somme had more than its share of heroism, but nothing that makes a good painting or heartening story for schoolchildren. Instead the Somme is men venturing out from trenches to kill each other in a small, brown, inglorious landscape. My girlfriend calls the Hart's massive tome "the maggoty corpse book," and the great number of unburied bodies is a note running repeatedly in its many first hand accounts from soldiers of many lands.

Hart does tend to fault Rawlinson to what I thought was an excessive extent. Rawlinson's main fault seems to be not resigning rather than follow the direction of Douglas Haig. It should be noted that most generals leading their country's conscripts would have been sacked after the July 1 slaughter north of the Bapaume road, where numerous New Army battalions were mowed down for little lost to the Germans except ammunition. Haig was not. Haig retained the top command, set the tone, and the learning curve of the British Army after July 1st was an embarrasingly low and bumpy one. And Haig was still making the same mistakes of overambitious attacks in 1917.

Peter Hart has produced a number of books from the IWM "First Person Stories" which make a tremendous source for the historian seeking answers to "how could this have happened?" This new work, The Somme, along with Bloody April, are Hart's new works separate from long time co-author Nigel Steel.

The Somme is an outstanding, highly readable work which uses historical facts to tie together hundreds of first hand accounts of the battle. This book makes no attempt to put the unmitigated horror of the story into a larger historical framework of World War I. It tells the story of soldiers who endured the four month bloodbath of 1916 which produced little but to relieve pressure on the French at Verdun.

I highly recommend this work as an interesting and informative "read" that lets the reader draw his own conclusions about the waste of the "Pals Battalions".

For the British, Ypres and the Somme are the definitive battles of the Great War. In this retelling of the latter, Hart has set the standard by which the newest generation of Great War history will be measured. This is a magnificently researched and readable look at arguably the most deadly battle of that deadly war. Hart is curator of the Imperial War Museum's audio archive and he puts to good use his familiarity with that wonderful resource. The result is direct quotes from dozens of participating soldiers. These recorded histories are in large part new sources (at least for me as a reader of Great War history) as opposed to the letters, diaries, and official histories that usually make up the bibliograpy of works such as these. Add to this Hart's sharp writing style, insightful comments, and ease at making sense of chaotic and confusing battle scenes (something that unfortunately is too rare among WWI historians) and you have a book that is difficult to put down, no matter how much you already know about the Somme. The author also does not shrink from describing the horror of battle, and in fact devotes an entire chapter to the medical services (such as they were) at the Somme. He is critical more of Rawlinson and Gough than of Haig (although admiting that Sir Douglas was ultimately responsible for his army commanders' actions) and covers all the major actions of the battle in some detail. One is certainly reminded of Lyn McDonald's work when reading this, but Hart gives us more than McDonald did in her account of the Somme in that her focus on the stories of veterans left portions of the battle undiscussed. While McDonald's version remains a masterwork, Hart's will join it as a magnificent recounting of those 4 1/2 months in 1916.

This book is a fine and engrossing study of the Battle of Arras in 1917, focusing on the climatic month of April when British and Canadian forces succeeded in driving back the Germans.

Hart begins with a thorough introduction to the battle, explaining how the Allies and the Germans came to fight near a village that had seen war ever since the Romans built it. He brilliantly describes the actions and preparations made prior to Spring, 1917, making excellent use of reports, maps, and personal letters.

The core of the book is centered on the air battle in April. British success--and high casualty rates in the Royal Flying Corps as it tried to make do with mediocre planes and little training--made possible the breakthroughs realized by the British and Canadian infantry, allowing them to capture Vimy Ridge. Along the way we run into some familiar figures, Richtofen and Göring among them, but most of the men we meet are now long forgotten except perhaps for a letter or, with luck, a picture. Hart tries to tell a bit of their story too.

This is an important and worthwhile book. Oh, one more thing is worth noting: You really must read the acknowledgments. Hart's original idea for the title of his book will make you laugh out loud.

Bloody April is about the air war over Arras in 1917: the
British lost large numbers of aircraft to the Germans, and
the life expectancy of a rookie pilot could be measured in
days. Yet, paradoxically, the British won the battle that
month. Bloody April goes into depth on the characteristics
of the aircraft, the training, the prelude to April and the
aftermath: there are innumerable quotes from diaries,
letters home, and other accounts that help show the attitudes
and the stress.

The romantic view of the war in the air in W.W. I is usually
that of single-seat fighters in combat with each other. The
reality is that for the RFC in the Arras sector, only a third
of the aircraft were single-seaters: the rest were all two-
seaters, although some of these had to be employed as fighters
at times. The primary mission of the RFC was to help with
photo reconnaissance (thousands of photographs had to be taken
each day) and artillery spotting (using wireless transmitters
to help artillery zero in on targets). The primary role of the
fighters was to escort the photo recon and artillery spotting
aircraft and to screen them by offensive patrols. Trench-
strafing, anti-balloon attacks, and bombing were of secondary
importance, as was the need to prevent photo recon and artillery
spotting by the Germans.

The German fighters were far superior to almost all of the
British two-seaters, and were superior to most of the British
fighters, but the Germans had only half as many aircraft in
the sector as the British, and so they usually played a
defensive role. The British accepted very heavy losses in
exchange for getting the photographs and the artillery
spotting done. There are quotes about how a squadron with
32 planes lost 35 pilots during April--replacement pilots
would survive only a few days. Flying a BE2 with only 10 hours'
flying experience against veteran German pilots whose planes
were twice as fast and had twice the firepower was not
conducive to lasting very long.

Bloody April never gets bogged down in small details--it gives
a first-class flavor to what things were really like, and it
helps dispell the romantic myths. It's a fine book.

addendum: august, 2007. Aces Falling by Peter Hart (available Amazon UK
august, USA October?) carries the air war through 1918--it's a good sequel
to Bloody April.

This book describes the terrible loss rate of the RFC two-seater aircrews during the month of April 1917, a period known as "Bloody April". The stage is set by introducing the reasons why these casualties were accepted as a necessary consequence of the requirements of the ground war on the Western Front. Considerable use is made of first person accounts by various two-seater aircrew personnel, most of whom have seldom if ever had their thoughts and fears depicted in such a graphic manner. These first person accounts give the book a personal air which came as quite a surprise, and which makes the book a remarkably easy read. Throughout, the book shows signs of considerable reaearch of high quality.
I will confess that I bought this book primarily because the price was right, and my expectations were quite modest. Having read the book, I can now say that this should be required reading for any serious student of the Great War in the air. It makes the suffering of the RFC Corps aircraft flight crews come alive in a way that few other references have matched.

dis book is awsome, i ve read it n its exciting but u should read da 1st book 1st.(wind singer) da 1st1 is a little boring. da 2nd 1 is non fiction so it isnt real but its very good. its full of imagination i would give dis book like a 4.5 star

This is definately the best book of the trilogy. It exceeds book one (which was great because it was really original) by far because of its gripping story!

Kestrel, Bowman and Mumpo are now older; their problems, it seems, more "realistic": Their hometown Aramanth, now by far a kinder place, is brutally destroyed by soldiers of the Mastery. All the inhabitants are either killed or taken with them as slaves. Only Kestrel is left behind - determined to find and save her family and people. But what she ultimately wants creeps upon her ever more: revenge!

While Bowman works his way all the way up to General Ortiz of the Mastery, he learns the secret magic of the singer people and falls in love with the Johdila, an eternally beautiful princess promised to Ortiz. The princess is on her way to the Mastery to be married as a treaty.
The wagon trail picks up Kestrel in the sandy desert half dead. Kestrel and the princess become close friends.
She meets Bowman but mustn't reveal that she is his sister. And cruel General Ortiz falls in love with her, not the Johdila...

The book is incredibly exciting from the beginning to the end. The story is very very good.
It makes you a slave: you just cannot stop reading! ;)

I picked up The Wind Singer when I was in 7th or 8th grade and I remember reading the last two in 3 or 4 days. I am very glad I picked up the Wind Singer when I got it, otherwise I wouldn't have known about this great trilogy. I own all three books but Slaves of the Mastery has remained my favorite for years. Even so that I don't even read the first book anymore, not that I don't like the first one but the second and third take on a kind of different atmosphere: Kestrel, Bowman, Pinto, and Mumpo are all older, as is everyone else and the trilogy itself takes a turn into a more mature state. I guess another reason why I like this one so much is because it's right in the middle of the trilogy and you know that when you read the last page it's not over yet. If you didn't like the first one I do have to tell you that the second is WAY better, it's not as juvenile. Not trying to down his first book, it just seems that way.

this is a really, REALLY fabulous book! it's soooooo much better than the first.
kestrel and bowman are all grown up and should really be getting married (though i dont know anyone married at 15) but before they even think about it disaster stikes! the manth people are taken into slavery, and kestrel is left behind!

i think this book deals with some issues "its better to be a slave and live than to be free and die" and why do we crave freedom anyway? but without going too deep or coming up with a definite answer.
a bit of the gushy love stuff is in it but again it doesn't go to deep or slushy (the 3rd book has more) which i think is very good. i have no idea how Nicholson comes up with his ideas but i'm really glad he did!
some new characters appear, like sisi and they're just as wonderful as bowman, kestrel and of course mumpo.
Great sequel, read all the books!!!!!

This is a wonderfully coherent account of ideas in the twentieth century. I wish I had had something like this when I entered university rather than trying to pick up the information piecemeal (and haphazardly) from various liberal arts courses. Strongly recommended for anyone about to enter university.

Highly recommended. Watson goes further than précis the work of the thought-leaders that shaped the twentieth century, he maps out the progression of ideas, their influences and interactions, and identifies the historical consequences: the influence of Darwin, Picasso, Marxism and Freud senseless tragedies culminating in two world wars; the ingredients for Modernism and transition to Post Modernism; and the limitations of science in the Post Industrial age. Watson teases us with his own vision beyond Post Modernism. Hopefully more detail is being saved for a subsequent book.

Beware your "must-read" list will not shorten after reading "A Terrible Beauty".

Peter Cushing is funny, frank and fascinating in the 2nd volume of his autobiography. Focusing almost exclusively on his life in the movies, his reminiscenses range from working as deranged scientists to Sherlock Holmes. Best remembered for his work with Hammer Studios and Christopher Lee this book will delight all those who have a soft spot for gothic horror and this late, great actor.

By British tankman Peter Gudgin, this book goes into great detail about the Tiger's design history and use in WWII. Plenty of diagrams, photos and illustrations help make this a useful and interesting read.

Any World War II buff is going to know about the airborne drops on Normandy and in connection with Market Garden.

But what was the first drop -- By: Italian reconnaissance and sabotage troops on 9 August 1918.

What do you know about the Japanese paratroopers --They had both Army and Navy paratroopers because the two services couldn't agree on anything together. And yes, they dropped them on several occasions.

And the Soviet Union airborne forces, five corps of 10,000 men each.

And the Indian Army paratroops...

As you might guess from these snippets, this book is the most complete story of airborne warfare yet written. It is written by an ex officer of the Special Air Service and The Parachute Regiment. He knows whereof he speaks. His previous books have covered individual units (6th Airborne Division), actions (Arnhem), or other specialized subjects. In this book he puts it all together and provides a complete history of Airborne operations.

Very well written, very informative, very complete.

Helmed by "Platoon" director and Vietnam vet Stone, "Born" is a profoundly moving portrait of a macho athlete whose horrific battle experience causes him to reassess his politics and reorient his give-`em-hell attitude. Cruise, in an ambitious turn away from heartthrob roles, plays Kovic with precision and conviction, especially at his darkest moments, delivering the finest work of his career. Co-written by Stone and Kovic, "Born" reflects the pain and anger felt by an entire generation of returning US soldiers, and will leave a lasting impression.

How could it have happened? Thousands of innocent soldiers and civilians killed for nothing? The most powerful nation on earth, having free speech and a free press, duped into a totally unnecesary and even counterproductive war? A Congress fooled by a dissembling and deceitful administration, with few dissenters.

Well, it happened again in 2003, and watching this movie, one of my favorites, is even more heartbreaking now than it was when I first saw it years ago. It's a period piece starting in the '50s, beautifully filmed, wonderfully acted, and perfectly capturing the spirit of three decades that I know well from personal experience. It's the story of Ron Kovic, who volunteered for duty in Vietnam, was severely wounded, and returned to find that not only had the war been unnecessary, but he and his fellow veterans were not all that welcome, especially when they started exercising their rights to protest the continuation of the war.

This is Stone's best movie by far. The joys of family life, the horrors of war, the pain of catastrophic injury, the trauma of alienation, the exhilaration of redemption... all are depicted movingly and accurately. In this movie, Stone is uncharacteristically as understated as John Williams' wonderful score. There are scenes, such as when Cruise's character, based on a real story, returns to his old neighborhood on Long Island to find his parents,family, and neighbors uneasily prepared for him, that always bring tears to my eyes. But that is just one of many such scenes.

Stone also is dead-on in his depiction of the attitude of the American public toward returning Vietnam veterans and the veterans' despair and bitterness. Alas, I fear that we have not seen yet the development of those same feelings as we have yet to see very many returning Iraq War veterans in this war, which never made any sense, but we will.

It's amazing to watch this movie again now and to see all the parallels with Vietnam, beginning with the killing of innocent civilians, confusion in the fighting, deaths of minority and working class kids, etc.

Like I said, it is heartbreaking to see this happen again, but this movie ought to be re-released or be shown in schools. Of course, being realistic, it has so much profanity and explicit references to sex that it will never be seen by those who ought to see it--impressionable kids who are brainwashed by government propaganda.

A side note: George W. Bush was probably at the 1972 GOP Convention that is depicted in the last part of this movie, so he was probably there when Ron Kovic and other Vietnam Veterans against the War were spit upon and gassed by police. Why John Kerry and his campaign did not bother to mention this--and a number of other things having to do with unnecessary wars--in the 2004 campaign is beyond me.

This is a movie to watch with your teenage son or daughter and to discuss afterward.

To be in a hot sun in a thick heavy uniform is very hard especially for those who never been in hot countries.You'd get easily confused and combined stupidities.
This movie features an ambitious young man dreams to be a hero of his land fighting enemies in other people's land.Ron Kovic has been brought up in a good family,but ends up for the rest of his life on a wheelchair.This... must be hell.
If you're born without legs,you'd never feel this kind of suffering.if you don't have love but have your legs,it would be different.Think what war can do to your children.
Kovic is interprated by Tom Cruise, an actor we have never seen so sad and depressed like in this movie.Oliver Stone is to me the 'Hero' of Vietnamese war's movies.Never forget that handsome Yankee Doodle Boy as young Kovic too.

Born on the Fourth of July follows the journey of Ron Kovic from his innocent childhood in the 1950's through his experience in the Vietnam war and its aftermath. His painful journey reflects the tumultuous journey that America took during the Vietnam War years.

Tom Cruise, delivering an intense performance as Kovic, and director Oliver Stone, a Vietnam Veteran, allows us to share in the raw emotions of the character. John Williams provides a brilliant score to add to the emotional punch.

This film was made when Stone could command a big budget post-Platoon and before he succumbed to the excesses of his later films - Born on the Fourth of July stands as his finest film.

Everything that people love and detest about Oliver Stone's films is in full flower here--ambitious theme, strengthen visual style, undisguised political biases...

The film is also an important turning point in Tom Cruise's career, completing his transformation from rising star to serious actor... He received his first Academy Award nomination for his role as antiwar activist and Vietnam veteran... Though Ron Kovic's story is presented as a distillation of the political and a violent social commotion that America went through from the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies... At heart, it's propaganda...

Stone begins the story as a twisted cinematic version with boys playing war in suburban woods... It's Massapequa, Long Island, 1956...

Ron Kovic grows up as a typical American white kid who believes in God, country, sports, and sex... His father's (Raymond J. Barry) leaving his forceful mother (Caroline Kava) as the dominant personality in the home... To Ron, she's a repressive slave driver who sets a standard he can never measure up to... That, in part, is why he enlists in the Marines, straight out of high school... Cut to the Cua Viet River, October 1967, where Sgt. Kovic is in his second tour...

The short vision of Vietnam that Stone presents here is even more surreal and horrifying than the violence in "Platoon." An attack on a village is a disaster, and the Marines' retreat from it is even worse for Kovic... That nightmare is settled when Kovic is seriously wounded, sent to a MASH unit, and then to a Bronx Veteran's Administration hospital...

Paralyzed from the waist down, Kovic sank into a deep depression... From that moment, the next hour or so is a steep downward spiral of self-pity, drunkenness, anger, misery, and, most important, guilt over one incident for which he cannot forgive himself... It's honest, unflattering, and ugly...

Cruise's performance is one of his best, capturing both the cocky, insecure young man and the haunted veteran...The motion picture is never boring and, until the last reel, the action moves forcefully...

If Stone had elected in the middle section to spend less time rolling about with pleasure in Mexican fleshpots and to pay more attention to Kovic's full development, he might have created the antiwar epic he was aiming for, revealing the physical and psychological costs of one of the most tragic events in history...