World Books - Page 3

The Wit and Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln

Bill Adler

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Great Book! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This was a Xmas gift to a Abe Lincoln fan. She was absolutely thrilled. Highly Recommend.

'Pocket Lincoln' 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

As a US History teacher, this small and inexpensive book brings personality and life to one of our most beloved Presidents. An excellent value and one that is more likely to be read and enjoyed than larger, more in depth works. Middle School kids get a kick out of the quotes.

Nice Work & Collection of Quotes 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The book is divided nicely into categories and is a good book that doesn't need long periods of time for reading. You will enjoy many of the stories and quotations from Mr. Lincoln. A nice compilation.

Very Entertaining 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Reading this book gives insight as to the person Lincoln was. His wit and humor, his suffering and astute personality. You will get to know this great person simply by reading his own thoughts put forth in his own words.

Editorial Review:

In this fascinating compendium are the best, funniest and most profound sayings of this most quotable of Chief Executives. From his youth in pioneer Illinois to the embattled White House of the Civil War, Lincoln never lost his capacity for dry humor--or his extraordinary gift of eloquence.

American Rifle: A Biography

Alexander Rose

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

George Washington insisted that his portrait be painted with one. Daniel Boone created a legend with one. Abraham Lincoln shot them on the White House lawn. And Teddy Roosevelt had his specially customized.

Now, in this first-of-its-kind book, historian Alexander Rose delivers a colorful, engrossing biography of an American icon: the rifle. Drawing on the words of soldiers, inventors, and presidents, based on extensive new research, and encompassing the Revolution to the present day, American Rifle is a balanced, wonderfully entertaining history of this most essential firearm and its place in American culture.

In the eighteenth century American soldiers discovered that they no longer had to fight in Europe’s time-honored way. With the evolution of the famed “Kentucky” Rifle—a weapon slow to load but devastatingly accurate in the hands of a master—a new era of warfare dawned, heralding the birth of the American individualist in battle.

In this spirited narrative, Alexander Rose reveals the hidden connections between the rifle’s development and our nation’s history. We witness the high-stakes international competition to produce the most potent gunpowder . . . how the mysterious arts of metallurgy, gunsmithing, and mass production played vital roles in the creation of American economic supremacy . . . and the ways in which bitter infighting between rival arms makers shaped diplomacy and influenced the most momentous decisions in American history. And we learn why advances in rifle technology and ammunition triggered revolutions in military tactics, how ballistics tests—frequently bizarre—were secretly conducted, and which firearms determined the course of entire wars.

From physics to geopolitics, from frontiersmen to the birth of the National Rifle Association, from the battles of the Revolution to the war in Iraq, American Rifle is a must read for history buffs, gun collectors, soldiers—and anyone who seeks to understand the dynamic relationship between the rifle and this nation’s history.

The Prince

Niccolo MacHiavelli

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 284 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Poor Translation 2 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This review was submitted on the web page presenting Mansfield's translation.

I have been using Wootton's translation of The Prince in a university program where the texts are set by the faculty. This year we changed to the Mansfield translation and I've requested that we return to Wootton's.

In his attempt to provide an "accurate" translation of the Italian, Mansfield made the mistake of many translators in overlooking the clarity of his English prose.

For example, where Wootton writes, "he increased the strength of one of the most powerful Italian states," Mansfield writes, "he . . . increased the power of a power in Italy." (15) There are other odd uses of diction in Mansfield, for example, where Wootton speaks of a "founder," Mansfield uses the word "introducer." (23) And though concise in places, Mansfield has a tendency to write long sentences, perhaps in imitation of the Italian, where Wootton is more to the point.

If you're still not convinced, compare the following passages:

Wootton: "So, too, with those who, having been private citizens, were made emperors of Rome because they had corrupted the soldiers. Such rulers are entirely dependent on the goodwill and good fortune of whoever has given them power. Good will and good fortune are totally unreliable and capricious."

Mansfield: ". . . as also those emperors were made who from private individual [sic] attained the empire through corrupting soldiers. These persons rest simply on the will and fortune of whoever has given a state to them, which are two very inconstant and unstable things."

Editorial Review:

A classic treatise on the art of statecraft from the Italian Renaissance statesman and political philosopher. A new translation which also includes several related pieces.

Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army [Revised and Updated]

Jeremy Scahill

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 247 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Can you say "Witch Hunt"? 2 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This book doesn't even pretend to be objective. Scahill obviously has a serious hate-on for all private military contractors (Blackwater especially). This is the "in" thing right now. It's cool to hate on these guys, and Scahill's looking to make his mark as the coolest. So what if his research, while thorough, is biased and guided by his own axe to grind? Blackwater employees wouldn't even have given this guy the time of day, and Blackwater's CEO flat-out refused an interview with him. I'm sure it's because they saw through him and knew he was only there for a witch hunt. I'm not saying don't read this book. What I'm saying is look at more than just his viewpoint. I doubt that this guy's ever been in a combat zone, but he wants to critique every move made by those who work in them. I'd recommend you read Robert Young Pelton's book "Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror". He actually rode along with Blackwater employees and got an interview with the CEO. He's as close as you'll come to an objective viewpoint.

Editorial Review:

On September 16, 2007, machine gun fire erupted in Baghdad's Nisour Square leaving seventeen Iraqi civilians dead, among them women and children. The shooting spree, labeled "Baghdad's Bloody Sunday," was neither the work of Iraqi insurgents nor U.S. soldiers. The shooters were private forces working for the secretive mercenary company, Blackwater Worldwide.

This is the explosive story of a company that rose a decade ago from Moyock, North Carolina, to become one of the most powerful players in the "War on Terror." In his gripping bestseller, awardwinning journalist Jeremy Scahill takes us from the bloodied streets of Iraq to hurricane-ravaged New Orleans to the chambers of power in Washington, to expose Blackwater as the frightening new face of the U.S. war machine.

* Winner of the George Polk Book Award
* Alternet Best Book of the Year
* Barnes & Noble one of the Best Nonfiction Books of 2007
* Amazon one of the Best Nonfiction Books of 2007  

The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine

Benjamin Wallace

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Not yet published By: Three Rivers Press

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 43 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

It was the most expensive bottle of wine ever sold.

In 1985, at a heated auction by Christie’s of London, a 1787 bottle of Château Lafite Bordeaux—one of a cache of bottles unearthed in a bricked-up Paris cellar and supposedly owned by Thomas Jefferson—went for $156,000 to a member of the Forbes family. The discoverer of the bottle was pop-band manager turned wine collector Hardy Rodenstock, who had a knack for finding extremely old and exquisite wines. But rumors about the bottle soon arose. Why wouldn’t Rodenstock reveal the exact location where it had been found? Was it part of a smuggled Nazi hoard? Or did his reticence conceal an even darker secret?

It would take more than two decades for those questions to be answered and involve a gallery of intriguing players—among them Michael Broadbent, the bicycle-riding British auctioneer who speaks of wines as if they are women and staked his reputation on the record-setting sale; Serena Sutcliffe, Broadbent’s elegant archrival, whose palate is covered by a hefty insurance policy; and Bill Koch, the extravagant Florida tycoon bent on exposing the truth about Rodenstock.

Pursuing the story from Monticello to London to Zurich to Munich and beyond, Benjamin Wallace also offers a mesmerizing history of wine, complete with vivid accounts of subterranean European laboratories where old vintages are dated and of Jefferson’s colorful, wine-soaked days in France, where he literally drank up the culture.

Suspenseful, witty, and thrillingly strange, The Billionaire’s Vinegar is the vintage tale of what could be the most elaborate con since the Hitler diaries. It is also the debut of an exceptionally powerful new voice in narrative non-fiction.


From the Hardcover edition.

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

Jared Diamond

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Total reviews: 402 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In his runaway bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond brilliantly examined the circumstances that allowed Western civilizations to dominate much of the world. Now he probes the other side of the equation: What caused some of the great civilizations of the past to fall into ruin, and what can we learn from their fates? Using a vast historical and geographical perspective ranging from Easter Island and the Maya to Viking Greenland and modern Montana, Diamond traces a fundamental pattern of environmental catastrophe—one whose warning signs can be seen in our modern world and that we ignore at our peril. Blending the most recent scientific advances into a narrative that is impossible to put down, Collapse exposes the deepest mysteries of the past even as it offers hope for the future.

“Diamond’s most influential gift may be his ability to write about geopolitical and environmental systems in ways that don’t just educate and provoke, but entertain.” —The Seattle Times

“Extremely persuasive . . . replete with fascinating stories, a treasure trove of historical anecdotes [and] haunting statistics.” —The Boston Globe

“Extraordinary in erudition and originality, compelling in [its] ability to relate the digitized pandemonium of the present to the hushed agrarian sunrises of the far past.” —The New York Times Book Review

The Monster of Florence

Douglas Preston

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 100 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In the nonfiction tradition of John Berendt ("Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil") and Erik Larson ("The Devil in the White City"), New York Times bestselling author Douglas Preston presents a gripping account of crime and punishment in the lush hills surrounding Florence, Italy.
In 2000, Douglas Preston fulfilled a dream to move his family to Italy. Then he discovered that the olive grove in front of their 14^th century farmhouse had been the scene of the most infamous double-murders in Italian history, committed by a serial killer known as the Monster of Florence. Preston, intrigued, meets Italian investigative journalist Mario Spezi to learn more. This is the true story of their search for--and identification of--the man they believe committed the crimes, and their chilling interview with him. And then, in a strange twist of fate, Preston and Spezi themselves become targets of the police investigation. Preston has his phone tapped, is interrogated, and told to leave the country. Spezi fares worse: he is thrown into Italy's grim Capanne prison, accused of being the Monster of Florence himself. Like one of Preston's thrillers, The Monster Of Florence, tells a remarkable and harrowing story involving murder, mutilation, and suicide-and at the center of it, Preston and Spezi, caught in a bizarre prosecutorial vendetta.

The Monster of Florence

Douglas Preston

Amazon Price: $13.59 List Price: $19.98 Not yet published By: Hachette Audio

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 100 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In 2000, Douglas Preston and his family moved to Florence, Italy, fulfilling a long-held dream. They put their children in Italian schools and settled into a 14th century farmhouse in the green hills of Florence, where they devoted themselves to living la dolce vita while Preston wrote his best-selling suspense novels. All that changes when he discovers that the lovely olive grove in front of their house had been the scene of the most infamous double-murders in Italian history, committed by a serial killer known only as the Monster of Florence. Preston, intrigued, joins up with the crack Italian investigative journalist Mario Spezi to solve the case. THE MONSTER OF FLORENCE tells the true story of their search for--and identification of--a likely suspect, and their chilling interview with that man. And then, in a strange twist of fate, Preston and Spezi themselves become targets of the police investigation into the murders. Preston has his phone tapped and is interrogated by the police, accused of perjury, planting false evidence and being an accessory to murder--and told to leave the country. Spezi fares worse: he is thrown into Italy's grim Capanne prison, accused of being the Monster of Florence himself. THE MONSTER OF FLORENCE, which reads like one of Preston's thrillers, tells a remarkable and harrowing story involving murder, mutilation, suicide, carnival trials, voyeurism, princes and palaces, body parts sent by post, séances, devil worship and Satanic sects, poisonings and exhumations, Florentine high fashion houses and drunken peasants--and at the center of it, Preston and Spezi, caught in the crossfire of a bizarre prosecutorial vendetta. NOW AVAILABLE AS A VALUE-PRICED audio edition.

The Monster of Florence

Douglas Preston

Amazon Price: $10.19 List Price: $14.99 Not yet published By: Grand Central Publishing

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 100 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In the tradition of John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City, Douglas Preston weaves a captivating account of crime and punishment in the lush hills of Florence, Italy.





Douglas Preston fulfilled a lifelong dream when he moved with his family to a villa in Florence. Upon meeting celebrated journalist Mario Spezi, Preston was stunned to learn that the olive grove next to his home had been the scene of a horrific double murder committed by one of the most infamous figures in Italian history. A serial killer who ritually murdered fourteen young lovers, he has never been caught. He is known as the Monster of Florence.





Fascinated by the tale, Preston began to work with Spezi on the case. Here is the true story of their search to uncover and confront the man they believe is the Monster. In an ironic twist of fate that echoes the dark traditions of the city's bloody history, Preston and Spezi themselves became targets of a bizarre police investigation.





With the gripping suspense of Preston's bestselling novels, THE MONSTER OF FLORENCE tells a remarkable and harrowing chronicle of murder, mutilation, suicide, and vengeance-with Preston and Spezi caught in the middle.

The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder

Vincent Bugliosi

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 224 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Famed Charles Manson prosecutor and three time #1 New York Times bestselling author Vincent Bugliosi has written the most powerful, explosive, and thought-provoking book of his storied career.

In The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, Bugliosi presents a tight, meticulously researched legal case that puts George W. Bush on trial in an American courtroom for the murder of nearly 4,000 American soldiers fighting the war in Iraq. Bugliosi sets forth the legal architecture and incontrovertible evidence that President Bush took this nation to war in Iraq under false pretenses—a war that has not only caused the deaths of American soldiers but also over 100,000 innocent Iraqi men, women, and children; cost the United States over one trillion dollars thus far with no end in sight; and alienated many American allies in the Western world.

As a prosecutor who is dedicated to seeking justice, Bugliosi, in his inimitable style, delivers a non-partisan argument, free from party lines and instead based upon hard facts and pure objectivity.

A searing indictment of the President and his administration, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder also outlines a legally credible pathway to holding our highest government officials accountable for their actions, thereby creating a framework for future occupants of the oval office.

Vincent Bugliosi calls for the United States of America to return to the great nation it once was and can be again. He believes the first step to achieving this goal is to bring those responsible for the war in Iraq to justice.