Nicholas Books

John Crawley and Katherine Graham provide an excellent introduction to mediation for managers who are unfamiliar with this technique. The book may seem basic to experts, though its useful examples of mediation practices at work will help even experienced practitioners. This is a clearly written (complete with British vocabulary idiosyncrasies), well-organized resource for company owners, managers and supervisors, though they may need additional practice before applying these techniques. The authors describe the basic categories of conflict resolution methods, though they might have included the well-known Thomas-Kilmann categories of conflict resolution styles - an approach that also includes compromise. Otherwise, we feel no conflict at all in highly recommending this solid, hands-on book.

The Medieval Icelandic Saga and Oral Tradition: A Discourse on Method (Publications of the Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature)

this text is a must have for scholars of Scandinavian studies, heathens engaged in saga studies, or those who seek more scholarly insights into the possible connections between medieval oral tradition and the development of the saga literary form, which precedes the english novel by nearly 400 years.

sigurdsson writes with wit, clarity and demonstrates great innovation bringing together an array of sources going back nearly 100 years, while he is also able to advance ideas from an emerging school of thought about how oral tradition may have shaped the saga form.

whether your interests are are literary, historical or religious, if you love Icelandic saga...this is simply must have.

The Korean war has interested me since I spent some weeks in South Korea during the 'Pueblo Crisis', when North Korea captured a US Navy spy ship in its territorial waters. The response of South Koreans was an outpouring of enormous pride at the accomplishment--and of memories about the Korean War, whose scars were still visible.
The memories of the South Korean people to whom I spoke supported Burchett's account of the war: namely that we were the aggressors throughout, that we treated the Korean people (South and North) brutally, and that the Northerners are heroes to the Southerners for their principled resistance to invasion and occupation by a foreign power.
Burchett has written one of the few eye-witness accounts of the Korean and Vietnamese conflicts from the 'other' side.
With reunification of the two parts of Korea now under way, we can expect to hear more about that other side in years to come. In the meantime, Burchett's book is a useful antidote to the usual propaganda.

Mentalism has long been the most misunderstood magical realm in Rolemaster Standard System. Arguments about the relationship between mentalism and psionics has been raging on the net and in private venues for years now. Essence, being the traditional magical discipline and channeling, the traditional power of clerics and other followers of divine beings, are both firmly entrenched in the minds of players and GMs alike. They are well burned into our imaginations and into our literature, and therefore, easy to grasp, by player and gamemaster alike.

My first reaction upon picking up this book was, "Wow, how many pages is this thing?" The answer, 158 pages, makes this the largest companion yet. Its size is no surprise. Upon leafing through it I began to realize just how ambitious this book really was.

It starts with your typical "What is Mentalism?" section, followed by a treatment of the standard mentalist archetypes. All of this is pretty old hat, though necessary to help unmuddy the mentalism waters. It then launches into a variety of subjects, many of which only loosely connected with mentalism itself.

It seems the authors used this book as a vehicle by which to cram in every rule system they could, dealing with the mind or mental subjects. Acceptable? To me it is, though some tastes may differ. A list of the primary subjects is as follows:

New professions: Very relevant. Every companion seems to need a new slew of professions, and this one adds (or reintroduces) the Seer, Astrologer, Enchanter and Armsmaster. Of all of these, the Armsmaster is by far my favorite, though the other professions will probably appeal to players with a less chivalrous bent. Regardless of your tastes, these professions fill important niches in the spell casting professions, niches that were previously unfilled.

This is followed by training packages, another must for a Rolemaster companion. Of all the work, I found this section the most disappointing (though it reintroduced the houri, an amusing character type). I don't know what I wanted from trainin packages, but this book failed to deliver it. I think it's just that none of the training packages struck my fancy.

Next is the treatment of magical ritual, a subject that is beginning to bore me. It's necessary, however, and it was vehicle for the author's attempt to introduce rules for mental combat. A private conversation with one of the authors revealed that, the published rules are scaled down from those the author submitted, and they are skeletal at best.

The next section was included to satisfy the Internet community. For years now, debates have raged about the nature of illusion in Rolemaster, and many people aren't satisfied with the official stance. This section therefore treats both sides of the argument, allowing gamemasters to use whichever one appeals to them most. It is good that this treatment was placed into print, and I suppose that this book is as good as any.

The next section deals with insanity. Though this might seem out of place at first, mentalist lists are the only real place where insanity is inflicted. This is a necessary addition to Rolemaster. It supports the gritty realism of the game, and I'm glad it was there.

This is followed by the section on Languages and Lore. Now, out of all the sections in this book, this has the least to do with mentalism. It's a good subject, though. I've never been satisfied with the way that any game handled languages, not even Rolemaster. This new treatment of languages, though not the most accurate, is a far cry from anything I've seen. The authors strived for a balance between realism and playability, and I think they found a happy medium.

Since mentalism deals with divination (at least with the professions in this work), the next three sections are dedicated to divination of various sorts. Therefore the book treats diving the past, present and future, helping the GM deal with difficult subject like astrology and the future. These subjects can be difficult for a GM to handle, and though this doesn't set any rules in stone, it tries to give the GM enough information to make an informed decision.

Next, you'll find specific treatments of astrology and tarot. I really felt these sections did nothing to help me with my campaigns, though the information might be a good starting point for creating your own divination systems. It was just too Earth specific to help me much.

For you Robert Jordan fans, I'll bet you'll feel a certain kinship with the authors of this book. Before the final section, consisting of spell lists, you'll find a treatment of dreams and dream travel. I liked the ideas here, but I wanted a lot more. It made me wonder whether the space constraints were cracking the whip on the authors during this section. A good broad treatment of the dream world would have been very nice, even one that we throw out to create our own. The single page on dream worlds simply wasn't enough for me.

My conclusion? This was a great book. It's become a permanent facet of my campaigns. Out of all the things that Rolemaster has to call its own, mentalism is the one that makes Rolemaster the most unique. It's a good thing for the game that this book was written. It takes that aspect of Rolemaster which is most unique and explains it, expands it and helps us make ours. It patches several holes that were left open in the Rolemaster system and does it with style and quality.

If I had to recommend a game, it would always be Rolemaster, and although there have been products in the past that I've felt have fallen short of the quality we've come to expect from ICE, this is not one of them. I couldn't necessarily recommend this book to most people playing other game systems (this isn't true for all Rolemaster books), but if your play Rolemaster, this book is a must.

The book was reasonably priced. It was shipped promptly and arrived undamaged. Both the text and pictures were very informative. I am planning a sightseeing trip to Colorado and doing research to determine which places I want to visit. I will definitely visit Mesa Verde National Park and the book will be extremely valuable in helping me decide which dwellings at the park I want to visit.

The story is touching, romantic and spellbinding. Teresa is a single mother, doing her best to raise her son, still stinging form the infidelities of her ex-husband. She has a promising career as a journalist and her days are filled with work, her friends and her son's activites. She isnt trying to find the love her her life,but perhaps it has found her. While jogging on a beach in Cape Cod, Teresa discovers..yes..a message in a bottle. She is so touched by the beautiful words of the sender( a true love letter),that she can't help but to try and locate him.(It helps being a journalist, and having lots of resources at your fingertips).Little did she know that finding the author of this beautiful letter would change her life forever.

"Message In A Bottle" by Nicholas Sparks is not only a beautiful story of real love, but one that is also a journey of self awareness, of opening up to the possiblities that life has to offer.It is one that you will probably need a hankie or two as well.

For those who love a good audio book for company on a long drive or around the house, I would recommend the reading by Kimberly Scharf. I felt like I was being told a story by an old friend. For details of the audio book(unabridged) see my review here:Message in a Bottle
Enjoy the read....Laurie

this is the book that you can hardly wait for read and it isn't only about one realtionship that someone always wins or loses this book is about passion of love and wanting to desire

In this entertaining and provacative book named after his recent column in Scientific American, Douglas Hofstadter persents a dazzling array of observations and ideas about how we perceive and think. With profound insight and an irrepressible sense of fun, he explores such subjects as artificial intelligence; sexist language in Chinese; experiments with the Prisoner's Dilemma; genetic evolution and its software counterpart; beautiful mathematical shapes known as "strange attractors"; nuclear war; and even National Enquirer hoaxes. Balanced between art and science, magic and logic, humor and rigor, Metamagical Themas (a rearrangement of the letters in "mathematical games") probes the deepest paradoxes and mysteries of the human mind and heart.
--- from book's back cover

This text provides a good overview, and then in-depth analysis of several of the micro-optic building-blocks used in modern photonic components (as well as other applications). Refractive and diffractive elements, GRIN lenses, gratings, isolators, photonic crystals, as well as imaging and arrays are each covered. Since these basic micro-optic structures reflect key areas where intensive research is being conducted for the next generation of optical telecommunications products, this book is a wise addition for anyone working (or planning to work) in the fields of applied optics, photonics, or optical telecommunications components. I refer back to it frequently.

This book is as facinating as it is informative. The hundreds of pictures are absolutly stunning and the captions are informative and well written. The book is a great look at not only aircraft preservation, but also the scrapping and recycling of those once proud aircraft that served with distinction. It begins with the history of the aircraft reclamation industry in it's infancy, after World War I, thru World War II, on to the conflicts in Asia, The Cold War, and then to today (Year 2000). The visualizations are stunning, the most memorable being a B-17 bomber with the "chopper" hovering only a few feet above the center of the fuesalage. The authors take you on a tour of the great scrap yards of yesterday and today, drawing you in, and making you wish you could walk the rows of B-24s, B-17s, P-51s, F-84s, F-4s, C-147s, and countless others and learn about the historic and heroic past of each of them. I highly recommend this book to ANY avaition fan or anyone even remotly interesed in military aircraft of the past 100 years.