Nicholson Books

I love travel narratives that take me on slow, relaxing journeys to unusual places. This author takes a journey to find the sources of famous poetic fragment, trying to locate Xanadu. This is a pleasant, slow read, and it was intriguing to find that the one part of this search led her back to a neighborhood of her own childhood.

Travel book that not only details the author's journeys around the world, but also back in time, to find the origin of Coleridge's famous poem about Xanadu. Very interesting and readable, I have read it three or four times now, always with pleasure. Readers who like "The Road to Ubar" (another fabulous travel/detective story) will like the "Way to Xanadu."

I purchased this book for my Christian fiancee, as our differing spiritual beliefs had created some tension between us. I read it first, expecting it to be filled with tricks and traps to convert me to Christianity. Here they are, in a nutshell:

1) Set a good Christian example, and 2) Pray often and vigorously.

Hope I didn't spoil the plot for anyone! Obviously, my skepticism was unwarranted. The book also contains wonderful advice in non-spiritual areas, such as love and communication. The message that "it is God who ultimately draws us to Him" is important for those who may feel the burden of their loved ones' eternal life rests solely on the believer's shoulders.

The only reason I didn't rate this book with five stars is it focuses on only two types of nonbelievers: "lukewarm" Christians who haven't developed a personal relationship with Jesus, and agnostics who have little or no spiritual life at all. Perhaps a future edition could include believers from different faiths. In my opinion, many of the book's reasons for becoming a Christian, such as overall health and happiness, would apply to becoming a Jew, Buddhist, or Muslim as well.

Still, this book accomplishes its goal very well, and I recommend it for any believer/nonbeliever couple. It helped me to realize "our differences may be deep, but not wide, and we can hold hands across the gap."

Thanks, Bebe!

Bebe Nicholson has shared her personal experience on how to lovingly witness to an unbelieving mate. Her work serves as a practical guide and inspiration for those who are married to an unbeliever and desire to have their spouse open to a personal relationship with Christ. She carefully identifies the importance of prayer and encourages the reader to employ a gentle and kind witness. Bebe has authored a poignant work that brings both laughter and tears to the reader. This book is highly recommended to every believing spouse who sincerely desires to learn and grow as they witness to their unbelieving mate. It is also recommended to those who counsel couples.

I was never a huge Shakespeare fan, yeah I studied English Lit in HS and College, memorizing Soliloquies and regurgitating plot for exams but the man's works just don't do that much for me. I wish I had access to this book for those courses; maybe my attitude would've changed. For not only is it a listing of characters, but incorporated in those "bios" are summaries of their motivations; and hence plot discussions.
It's also written clearly, with a fondness for its subject, but never a snide or condescending tone to the reader.
As Hamlet said, "The Play's the thing" (had to have at least one quotation); this is a great play reference for the casual reader or puzzle solver. Highly recommended.

I wet my pants in anticipation for this book. I never could understand Shakespeare, until now. This book revived my intrest and kept me busy for days. The only problem I found with this treasure of literary reference was it's lack of entries for Macmorris from "Henry V" and Jaques De Boys from "As You Like It". Other than that, I say that this book is for anyone who is beaten over the head by Shakespeare's works.

Sophie's World is a trite and ploddingly written textbook trying to masquerade as a novel of meta fiction. Mr. Gaarder writes with a pedantic style when he presents the philosophy lectures/letters in the novel. The dialogue of the characters is trite and unrealistic at best. Usually I am little more kind in book reviews, but I do not understand all the fuss about this one.
I think many people praise it because of its cutesy story arc of fictional characters living in perpetuity outside of the world of their texts. Sorry folks, but this is not a very original idea. For a far superior take on the same themes look to Pirandello's masterful play Six Characters in Search of an Author.
Mr. Gaarder barely connects his two storylines about a philosophy course, and a man writing a book about a philosophy course, and when they do intersect one is hard pressed to find the thematic relevance. It is almost like he expects the reader to be impressed by the intertwining story lines and their subject matter, and to forget that he does a terrible job of bridging the two.
Take a philosophy course, or read some meta fiction. This text is a poor example of both!

This is a brilliant book sweeping you through history and introducing highly inspirational characters from different periods of time around the world. Even though it is described as 'A Novel About The History of Philosophy', it is barely that. To me a lot of excerpts from the words of legends such as Plato or Socrates made a lot of sense and seemed to run on logic. The novel features a girl called Sophie who receives letters from an unknown philosopher who teaches her a lot about life and the way things work. She learns and absorbs as much as she can, and soon you find that you are indeed the 'Sophie' in the story, and the book is indeed the 'Unknown Philosopher'! This book is a masterpiece that will keep you thinking till the end and after. Its a timeless wonder."

I agree with other reviewers that the book is fun, fascinating, and informative. My only objection is that the ending is a bit over the top. I felt that the author could not quite figure out how to wrap up the story and the effect seems a little wild and crazy. Some will probably love it for that reason.

Sophie's World is a fine book, but this recording has a couple of mixed up tracks (tracks recorded correctly, but apparently put on the CD in reverse order) and one part where either the reader (Simon Vance) accidentally skipped a couple of paragraphs or, more likely the recording was accidentally cut. I sent a letter to Macmillan explaining the problem. They politely thanked me for the input; but, a year later, nothing has happened.

This was a good book to read and the story line showed an interesting and unraveling plot twisting its way through major contents of philosophical knowledge. It is a pleasant read and one that is relaxing and kind to the mind. It is worth buying if you want to know philosophy in a simple and historical way and it will give you some basic understanding on how philosophy evolved. The author has written it in his unique perspective and it has many creative moments making it very special and memorable.

Maybe I am biased, but in my opinion, one of the good things about being an American is that our history is really interesting. Sure, other countries have their moments, but it was the United States that went toe-to-toe against the mighty British Empire - and won. Ours was the only example in world history of a violent revolution bringing about a change in government in which those who engaged in the fighting did not try to maintain their own power, but voluntarily stepped down when voted out. And although slavery existed for thousands of years over large sections of the planet, it was Americans who voted in a President knowing full well it would probably tear us apart and force a civil war. Man, this is high drama.

There is, of course, so much to American history that it can be daunting. If one wants a single, albeit lengthy, book for an excellent overview, it would be hard to top A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, by the prolific Paul Johnson. From pre-Revolutionary times to the near present day, Johnson presents this nation's history in a manner that gives enough of the facts to learn something meaningful without focusing so sharply on any one period or issue as a more focused book would do. To make it all the better, Johnson is actually a good writer, making the book as interesting as it is informative.

Many of Johnson's critics accuse him of putting a conservative slant on his writing. I have been around the block enough to know how this argument works. Conservatives tell America's story warts and all, while liberals tell America's story as all warts. Liberals then accuse conservatives of being slanted, not because conservatives exclude the bad parts, but because they include the good parts, as well. And for all the anti-Americanism out there, telling all the bad and all the good of America does not balance the scale. If one judges a nation not on the amount of problems it has or the amount of injustice within that country, but on the willingness of that country to face such injustice head on and deal with it, then the U.S. deserves its pre-eminent place among world societies. For all the griping on the left, I am convinced that many on that side of the spectrum know this as well.

A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE demonstrates this. Although I think Johnson does show his beliefs a bit too much in those sections on the mid to late 20th Century, the book overall is biased only in its attempt to portray American history accurately. Although Johnson is obviously fond of Americans, anyone expecting an uncritical cheerleader for U.S policy and history will be sorely disappointed. As the book is over 1,000 pages, selectively picking passages to demonstrate bias is a bit tough to take.

For anyone who wants to learn about American history, and for those Americans not ashamed of their own country, this book is highly recommended. Do not let the size of it intimidate you. I myself picked it up and put it down several times before finally making my way through it. Like many lengthy endeavors, it will be well worth it when it's done.

This is a very informative book to read because I have read this book in History class and made an "A". Everybody in class was required to buy the book but I was not disappointed with its historical values.

I 'ain't' smart enough to see that much of a political slant. Especially early in History, I forget the position the whigs had on immigration.

Forget all that liberal/conservative stuff this book is just a really good, in-depth american history. You cant read it in a weekend. I couldn't read it in a month...but I kept picking it up till I finished it. Considering how big a volume it is and my preference for only reading the 1st third a book. The only explanation that I got through this one is that it is really well written and interesting as hell.

I recommend this book to anyone.

Recommended for two types of readers: 1) The person who wants to get an overview of U.S. history in one easy-to-read (but large) volume; and 2) those who, like myself, have read many American biographies and histories. We can benefit in at least two respects. First, we get to share a history of our nation as seen from an outsider's perspective. Second, we learn factual history that somehow never made it into the books we have read, perhaps because we, collectively, were not much interested.
My comment avoids political controversy, so I'll stick with the earlier portion of the book.
First, the beginnings of American slavery were brand new to me, and fascinating.
Second -- and as a Philadelphian news to me -- was Johnson's view of the northern colonies/States' support of slavery. Quakers in Barbados, rich from slave trading, moving to North America! news to me.
Especially appreciated was Johnson's discussion of the "thousand years of political traditions, inherited from England," which formed the basis of our Founding Fathers' political actions.
Johnson attributes to Madison's famous "We, the people" Lincoln's rationale for not permitting States to leave the Union.
And more, much more. Buy it. Enjoy it!
One word of warning: read cautiously; Johnson has some blunders, the funniest of which is calling Horatio Gates "Horatio Alger."

Lengthy, but fascinating. I'm reading this to go along with my eldest's study of Am.History. It is refreshing and eye-opening to read a text from a European historian who actually agrees that America did some good in the world. JFK is not a saint, Nixon is not a villain. The truth is somewhere in between. A good education for me!

The Black Ice is Michael Connelly's second book in his series of Harry Bosch novels. What makes his books special is the combination of an interesting and complex main character with fascinating story lines that are complex enough to keep you on your toes, but also fun and engaging.

In this installment, Bosch discovers that a suicide of a narcotics officer might actually be a homicide, and that the officer may have been playing both sides. The story bogs down a bit when Bosch travels to Mexico, and the story started to veer off into 3 star territory, but for me, the ending redeemed this book.

It is Christmas, and Harry Bosch is on standby to take calls for any murders. He has the police scanner on, and hears a report of an incident within his jurisdiction. When he investigates, he becomes involved in a messy case involving a police officer. Things develop from there.

There is a lot about bureaucracy and bean counting in the police department. Increase the number of arrests and increase the percentage of solved cases to make the atatistics look good when the budget request goes in. There are continuing conflicts between Harry and his superiors, but there are some tradeoffs. Not everything is as it seems, but everyone seems to come away with something. Sometimes it's better not to look too close.

Black ice, by the way, is a new form of narcotic - an emerging recreational drug showing up on the scene.

The novel is also available as part of the omnibus collection, "The Harry Bosch Novels."

Be sure you read The Black Echo before this book. The back story and characterizations rely a lot on these books being read in the order they were written.

The Black Ice has many things to recommend it. Harry Bosch is a modern "noir" detective working in LA's underbelly, the sleazy streets of Hollywood, who sees himself as an avenging angel with no room for anything else in his life. That characterization is tested in The Black Ice when Harry is affected to his toes by meeting the widow of a murder victim.

The descriptions of drug manufacture, distribution, and dealing are powerful and memorable. The book has lots of exciting action.

You'll also feel like you've been taken on a well-run tour of Hollywood and Mexicali . . . to see the tawdriest locales.

But the book does go wrong, tarnishing lots of good writing. Michael Connelly inexplicably and unnecessarily uses one of the oldest and least satisfying plot devices in the mystery author's filing cabinet. I won't say more, but you'll know what I mean when the book is over.

The effect of hitting that plot device is like going from a smooth ride in a jet to a kid's soap box derby crate rolling over potholes. The ride just isn't the same. Up until the plot device is triggered, the book is clearly a five-star effort.

But you have better things ahead. The Concrete Blonde, the third Harry Bosch mystery, is a much better and more rewarding book to read.

Just love Harry Bosch. The stories are gritting, complex and well executed with believable characters. What else do you want!?

Having grown up in the upper Midwest (eastern Montana), I know all about black ice. It is deceptive - the road looks perfectly fine, but if you aren't very careful, and if you hit a patch just right (or wrong, I suppose, would be more correct), it can send you careening off in an unexpected direction. This idea is used to good effect in this very excellent novel by Michael Connelly.

Harry Bosch only knew about the killing because one of the transmissions happened to go out on the regular frequency. He was angry, because he was supposed to be on call that night for any murders, so he decided to go and crash the party, so to speak. When he arrived, it was to discover that one of the vice cops - Calexio Moore - had apparently taken a shotgun, propped himself against the bathtub, held it to his face and pulled both the triggers with his toe. There wasn't much left of his face. When the body is finally moved and searched, a note is found in his back pocket which reads "I found out who I was."

Harry is told in no uncertain terms that his help is not wanted on this case but because Harry is completely incapable of letting things go, he begins to investigate the matter anyway. What he discovers eventually leads him to the barrio Cal grew up in, in Calexico - right across the border from Mexicali. From bull fights to a castle on a hill, Harry's time spent in this area is vivid and beautifully described.

This is an amazing book. Fans of noir, thrillers, good mysteries and/or this series will love this Bosch story!

It's about that time about ten years ago - those thrilling days of yesteryear - when the Web was new, that's the time well captured in Burn Rate by Michael Wolff. Aptly cover the 24 weeks or so when 'content was king.'

Like many others, Wolff could not resist the opportunity to be a part of a medium in its infant days. His delivery is generally well paced, often witty. It is old news now of course, and says nothing of Google or AOL since its merger with Time. The time capsule effect is for the better.

What is your business model? When Netscape met advertising. The conundrum of the CPM [Cost per Thousand] trade press advertising model. And the larger more targeted more economical online version. Can software tell you what music you may like better than a skilled critic? In those days the folks with the money had not been on the Internet anymore than they have used Del.icio.us these days. Would the Internet level magazines? Minimal entry cost, but then what? Users taking control of news delivery systems. Pathfinder. Burning venture capital faster than achieving revenue. If you build it...

It's all there.

While I don't know the whole story, Wolff seems to have a lot of experience, and little business smarts. Heck, from the few descriptions of his wife, SHE seems to have more business smarts. This is certainly an interesting, well-written book (he's a writer after all,) but the fact that he drove himself to near insanity as well as bankruptcy all in the name of pure greed leaves me feeling this book has no real point other than "How I wanted to get rich, or die tryin!" He described endless begging for money, which seems to be the central point of the book. You will find an interesting set of stories here, but the message is a rather shallow one if there is one at all. But then I guess that was the point of most of the internet bubble as a whole.

If you are into the Internet Gold Rush, or just like a hard-hitting, true story about business, personalities, and playing hardball, you MUST read this book.

I really liked this book and got to learn about the hardships entrepreneurs go through in a startup.I was also not much aware about the differences in thought between West Coast and East Coast IT companies.Finally, kudos to Michael Wolff for potraying an honest,funny and nerve wrecking real life story and am happy he is doing what he likes to do!!

Next up: How Donald Trump survived his Daddy's money, How Nelson Rockefeller survived the shadow of his family's name, how George Bush survived his years of failing oil companies.

The book is reasonably refreshing in its self-assesment of knowing virtually nothing about how the internet would affect publishing and how anybody would make any money off it. Its candor is also refreshing in describing how they had so little to offer but were so willing to sell it at a high price to the even more gullible ("they want how many million for the contents of my palm pilot?")

If the author were a disinterested party reporting the actions of others, one would have to rate this book 4/5 for good writing, clarity and candor. As a player who took huge sums of money from investors, suspecting the business was a house of cards, one can only wonder if he shouldn't be in jail. As a book, I have little choice but to recommend it. The description of AOL alone is worth the purchase price.

I found Daniel Silva on amazon as I find most of the authors that I end up reading; by perusing what other people who are reading the same book as I are reading. Anyway, this was an above-average spy thriller that pitted a retired Israeli agent against a militant Palestinian who was/is bent on destroying the Middle East peace process. Since this book was written almost 8 years ago and there is still no "peace" in the Middle East this book is just as interesting today as it was when it was written.
Recommended - and can't wait to read the next books in the series.

I had previously read two of the books in this series so I was familiar with most of the characters. One of those previous books was The Messenger which was a real five star thriller.

Silva does an outstanding job in painting his characters so that it is easy for the reader to feel like he/she knows them. This and his writing style makes for an easy read where you don't have to turn back to earlier pages to relate anything . . . you can just keep reading.

Things really get suspenseful when both the Mossad agents and the terrorists are sure that they had outsmarted the other and both are ready for a far different bloody finish. This is when you have your finger under the edge of the page so that you can turn it as you are reading the last few words. This is no time for a coffee break or anything else except reading!

I did not give this book five stars because there were a few places where a character acted different than he had been portrayed and the ending was not as complete as I would have liked!

Hello, Gabriel Allon, you've become a welcome addition to my life.

You really need to get married, though. No spy females, please.

Your creator is as smooth as a vodka gimlet made of France's Grey Goose vodka.

I love this review by Christine Cunningham:[...]

Following the standard rule of rounding, four and a half stars becomes five.

And who says we need to forgive the murderers of our son, the maimers of our wife? Gabriel does in Tariq in the end, as it should be.

An exquisite master art restorer living on the sea shore in Cornwall, England, Gabriel Allon, a lone wolf Mossad assassin, learns to live day by day by meticulous work and sailing a sailboat he restored. The spy is spied on by a young, lonely boy named Peel, whose is a narrative piece of thread I wished had been worked on more.

Allon is pulled back by Amri Shamron, a high level apparatchik Mossad operative and rejoins the hunt. Of humans.

He develops a romantic relationship with a closet Jewess, who is improbably a famous model, Jacqueline. Sarah's her real name. She is used to ferret out the most elusive Palestinian spy Tariq, who was responsible for blowing up Allon's wife's car in Vienna, landing her in an asylum and killing his son.

The intricate, chess-like narrative ends in New York City. Guns are involved, as is that odious former human, Yasser Arafat, who's presented almost nobly.

This is a very welcome beginning of the series staring Gabriel Allon. I have spent many enjoyable hours with him.

Thank you, Daniel Silva!

Full of superfluous description, which impedes the flow of the narrative. Dreary and fake.

Reading your first Daniel Silva book will compel you to buy another and another.......which I have done.

I received this book as a gift, and what a gift it was, this is easily one of the best books I've ever read... The moment I started reading "Tribes" I was immediately fully absorbed by it, like I am with few other books...

Not only did I find myself relating to Medina, and to her entire family, I found her to be an immensely likable character who's struggles, battles and ultimate ability to transcend the immense dysfunction that dwells within her family were, dare I say it, inspirational. At the very least this book is moving, and complex, but there's more to it than that, it's a story about overcoming and surviving...

I don't know why I waited so long to read Ms. Nicholson's novel about my hometown, but I am certainly glad I finally read it. It's a painful but accurate depiction of being an adolescent (probably anywhere). I related to her struggles as a teenage girl, more than as a PV girl (even though I am one). Much of what Ms. Nicolson attributes to Palos Verdes is very accurate but I think the locale is merely a backdrop for a touchingly sad story. The story of what it is like to be a teenage girl, awkward and lost. The writing is quite good and very easy to read. I read it in a couple of sittings. Props to a very brave woman writing about the things that most of us would prefer to pretend never happened to us.

This book was really good, don't get me wrong, but the writer is completely off if she thinks PV's really the way she wrote about it to be. First of all, she needs to brush up on her surfing knowledge before she writes a book about it. Most of it is false. Secondly, it was completely exaggerated. Red tides are really not that big of a deal, and the people here aren't the way she described them to be. These things kind of annoyed me. Other than that, it was good.

I picked up this book thinking, "Oh cool, a book about a girl in a group with guys surfing!" I soon found out that was not the case, or not really the case. This book astonished me and made me thank myself for all of the good things I have in my life. The story started out fairly normal, and me thinking "Everything will end up happy-go-lucky" boy, oh boy was I wrong. It was a rollercoaster, everytime something good would happen, it would scaled downward. The ending is very surprising, yet depressing at the same time! I just kept reading it because you wanted to find out what else could go wrong in Medina's life!

Oddly enough, this book felt like an update to Sallinger's classic, with a west coast twist. Nicholson's Medina is younger than Sallinger's Holden (and a girl to boot), but the alienation and wry powers of observation are there. The author managed to get a feel of what the Palos Verdes area (and lifestyle) is like, but as a previous reviewer mentioned, the relationship with the twin brother and their self-imploding mother is a bit too much to be taken seriously...An amusing read with bits of dream-like descriptions scattered throughout.

Furst is brilliant at character study, but more than that, he delivers you into another world. Pre-World II Europe becomes present. For anybody who's interested in those years of upheaval, extraordinary courage as well as human frailty and sinister ideologies, please get any of his extraordinary books.

Alan Furst came to my attention through a New York Times Book Review about his newest book. After a little bit of research, mostly here on Amazon people's lists, I bought "Night Soldiers" and loved it so much that I immediately bought "The Foreign Correspondent" and enjoyed it almost as much. I now have "Dark Star" waiting for me to start on a flight I'm taking on Wednesday.

These are great books of an era as well as a travelogue of European countries I love already and some to which I've never been but definitely will visit now. Oh, also, be careful. You'll want to take up smoking and sit alone in dark areas. Be strong.

What on earth was the point of that? Cardboard characters mouthing turgid expositions of the state of the world. Plodding style showing utter ignorance of how commas are used. Stuff happens, and then more stuff happens, and then some more; plot points are portentously introduced and then abandoned; then suddenly nothing happens any more because the book is over. What happened to the traitor? What happened to Ferrara's book? What happened to Liberazione? What happened to Emil, and why did the cops pounce at the end? What was Christa doing in Berlin in the first place? What were the consequences of the murder at the beginning? Who the heck cares any more? Dreadful.

As with the other books by Alan Furst, this is a book about brave people risking their lives in often doomed causes, because they believe in them and know that what they are doing is right.

Alan Furst's "Foreign Correspondent" is an easy and fascinating read, especially if one is familiar with the scenario, i.e. Paris, Berlin, and parts of Italy. I am fortunate in having some familiarity with all three.
This was a page-turner, the likes of which I had not read in a long while. Thank you, Alan Furst, for writing "The Foreign Correspondent".

I am about to begin reading "The Spies of Warsaw", but am actually saving it for an anticipated, hopefully short, hospital stay. If it "grabs" me as did the Foreign Correspondent, I plan to get all of the other novels written by Mr. Furst. And yes, I am a child of that era (actually, a holocaust survivor).