Nicholson Books

despite some truth lacking details, this book represents a thourough look on this awful war..with so many forgotten incidents,it reminds us of so many tiny details that caused the big fire....really good for those looking for the truth....a must read

I am a newcomer to the life of this amazing English king, but this book has been truly fascinating. Well written, informative, and easy to read, I recommend Mrs. Fraser's book to anyone who wants to start learning about Henry. For an expert on the subject, this is probably too basic for you.

Black's autobiography reads synonymous with the man - very complex!!! It's an insightful tell-tale book of one of the most vociferous Canadian business magnates of this half of the twentieth-century. Included in this memoir are numerous stories from childhood to adolescence, political experience, the strategic takeover of the Argus corporation, as well as numerous stories told in candid detail by the Napoleonic chairperson of Hollinger Corporation. My appended recommendation would be to invest in a copy of the Oxford Dictionary(trust me, analogous to Mr. Black's comprehension of the newspaper industry is his command of the english language).

If the biography of a city whose history spans two thousand years is compressed to the short written span of only 150 pages, it is of necessity less than comprehensive. Like the late evening news, whose information is a compilation of sound bytes and 30 second highlights summarizing the day's events from around the world, AN Wilson's "London" is entertaining and briefly hits only the highest of the high spots. If a reader limits his expectations to information content at that limited level, then any potential disappointment will dissipate like the mists of an early morning fog on the Thames. Instead the reader will be treated to a very entertaining and informative read that adequately traces the evolution of London from an outlying Roman settlement to a multi-ethnic cosmopolis whose economy is built upon the twin pillars of tourism and world finance.

"London is now a town much more like New York than it is like Rome or Paris. It does not have a particularly national identity. The big City institutions are largely staffed, funded and run, as well as owned, by hugely powerful non-British companies, American, German and Japanese. The economy depends upon non-British holidaymakers coming in huge numbers to be fed and tended by, on the whole, non-British restaurateurs, hoteliers, entertainers ... " and the like.

I found it particularly interesting that Wilson, like Bill Bryson in his "Notes from a Small Island", makes much of the abysmal state of post World War II architecture and the generally appalling lack of leadership and centralized urban planning in the growth of the city of London. But whatever criticisms Wilson might level at London are also tempered by his obvious love for the city and his optimism that "in spite of all the mistakes made by its administrators, it will meet the challenges of the future".

As one of those millions of visiting tourists, I purchased "London: A Short History" as a souvenir with the intent of learning a little bit more about the city that was gracious enough to give me such an enjoyable vacation. It filled the bill perfectly. The few brief pages, for example, that talked about Churchill's leadership and the city's unflappable courage during the London Blitzkrieg were a wonderful, moving summary of the city's finest hour.

Highly recommended.

Paul Weiss

A sharp and disquieting critique of IQ testing on one hand and general intelligence on the other hand.

Surprisingly brief and to the point for a topic with such a long and contentious history. Even more surprisingly, and very welcome, the author presents a reasonable (though somewhat difficult to measure) alternative way of viewing intelligence, as tracing of increasingly complex covariation among relevant variables. The "points of light" experiments (recognizing biologically meaningful things from nothing but a few moving points) provides a helpful platform for discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the "module" view vs. a "construction" view based on Piaget.

Along the way, the author manages to provide reasonable and well argued, if not entirely convincing, arguments against cognitive modules in general, and an interesting discussion of levels of hierarchy from genetic variation to genome regulation to epigenetic regulation to cognitive regulation, in both development and over the lifespan of individuals.

I was disappointed to find that there was no solid critique of some of the proposed biological theories of general intelligence, such as the putative "string length" electroencephalogram correlate for IQ or the recent working memory theories. The critique hits those kinds of data only briefly and superficially where touched on at all, and mostly on statistical and methodological grounds rather than technical or theoretical ones.

Perhaps the most effective argumentation here revolves around how IQ tests are constructed (by selecting items so that the resulting scores correlate with predefined types of success assumed to reflect intelligence); and how they have been misused historically. The main weakness from my perspective was the disappointing way the book address specific technical arguments with general methodological and statistical criticisms.

Definitely worth reading, whether you agree with the author's conclusions or not, because its thought provoking insights into how we think of intelligence, and how we may be fooling ourselves through our own deep assumptions.

The book describes the city, her quarters, habitants, history, gods, dangers and "stars" in a soberb way. The adventure with happens in a market chash is very good too. The ONLY drawback of the book in my oppinion are the pictures who are inferior to Warhammer FRP standards. Anyway the book surely worth the price.

This book is a good starting point for anyone interested in reading up on medieval warfare. Its chronological sweep is very broad, and while it focuses on Western and Central Europe, it deals reasonably well with conflict between the peoples of these regions and others that they came into conflict with. The breadth of the work limits the amount of detail provided, but the author includes some effective examples. One real asset here, especially to the student, is that she surveys the recent literature and debates in different subfields, and provides references to key works that one can go to in order to learn more about them. The author also does her best to avoid overgeneralization, which is particularly helpful in her discussions of topics like feudalism and knighthood. While there are some factual or contextual errors here and there, there are not too many of these, and they do not significantly detract from the quality of the work. Undergraduates with no background in medieval history may find that the author assumes that they know more than they do, but anyone with some background in the field will find the book very useful. This is not a "battle book" with lots of ripping yarns, but it will help the reader to understand medieval warfare as described in such books, as well as in the chronicles and fictional literature from the time period.

Minimum of Two is a collection of short stories by Australian author Tim Winton. What makes them special is the honesty that Winton conveys with his own style. Many of the stories are very short and simply written on the surface, but when you read them you find what he doesnt say is as important as what he does. He conveys with a few well chosen words what less accomplished writers take pages and pages to come close to. His words give the reader room to think for themselves and make them more moving when a connection between writer and reader is established. Thats what makes him a special writer and this story collection worth having.

"This important collection of 15 papers originated as a symposium on the "Mexica Puebla concept," a distinctive "stylistic/iconographic tradition" in the late prehistoric period of Central Mexico (mainly post-CE 1200). The term refers to a complex of traits that seems to have centered in the states of Puebla and western Oaxaca and spread widely, even as far as Costa Rica; the famous Aztec style in the Valley of Mexico was a related variation. Most of the papers analyze the best-known aspects of the tradition: distinctive painted iconography on highly decorated polychrome pottery, screen-fold books (codices), and wall murals. Emphasis is on the results of recent fieldwork that updates understanding of the Mixteca-Puebla manifestations in different local regions, allowing further interpretations of pre-Hispanic culture history and culture processes....

....An important addition for Mesoamerican collections, of lasting value."

National Geographic Traveler: India is a beautiful book, useful for exploring sites and historical background but terribly outdated in practical information about prices for hotel rooms and such because of the incredible recent growth and inflation in India and the shortage of accommodations there.