Not much has been written on the Civil War in the Appalachians, where, as William Trotter so eloquently puts it: "The killers had names, the victims had kin, and everybody had a gun." Bushwhackers is the best-researched, most thorough account of the mountain war that I have found. When I was researching "Ghost Riders", my novel about the Civil War in the mountains, I found that Mr. Trotter's book was the most useful guide to the chronology of events and their significance. In addition to primary source material and histories, I consulted his book at every turn to make sure that my narrative on Zebulon Vance and Malinda Blalock agreed with the historical record. When other authors disagreed on some point of information, and I had to chose whom to believe, I always chose Trotter. This book is a distinguished piece of scholarship, and an invaluable resource to the Appalachian historian. Highly recommended!

Bushwhackers; The Civil War in North Carolina The Mountains written by William R. Trotter is an epic backrop for the great military war that occured behind the scenes in the Mountainous regions of the western North Carolina Appalachian's. The book attempts to document much of the voilence that did take place such as Fratricidal Raiding and Bushwhacking skirmishes that took place amid small bands of men whom operated under no regular military command. There was no Official Reports filed on most of this fighting. Major connections to East Tennessee, as well, this book is a pleasure and more a treasure for anyone interested in history and genealogical findings on their ancestors that traveled thru the southern states to freedom.

Bushwackers is a reader friendly account of the civil war in the mountains of North Carolina. Besides the historical accounts, Trotter includes stories that have been passed down and are rich fodder for storytellers. Trotter has a creative non-fiction style that brings this time and place alive. :)Mary Z. Cox

I thought about this book when I was thinking about the Columbine murders. The book discusses a theory on how Fritz Klenner became the serial murderer that killed the Newson and Lynch Families. There is a discussion regarding the effect of how books such as the Turner Diaries represent a dangerous form of pornography and how exposure to these books could create Fritz Klenners. An important book to read when trying to understand the mindset of the murderers at Columbine High. Was it exposure to books like the Turner Diaries sold at gun shows that caused these kids to develop their sick fixations? We will never know but the author insightfully discusses how this form of pornography (graphic accounts of murder) is the most dangerous form there is of pornography.

McCarthy's book on Florida's lighthouses is wonderfully thorough and marvelously concise. Each lighthouse merits a few solidly written pages of its history and lore, graced by dramatic William Trotter paintings of each light. Directions and maps conclude each chapter. This is a delightful work, easy to read and ready to use. Anyone journeying to Florida to see the state's 30 lighthouses should take along a copy of McCarthy's book. Among the growing number of lighthouse books, this one is well worth having on the shelf.

I am a big fan of coastal Georgia history and found this book to be full of great information. The book begins in Savannah and works its way down the beautiful Georgia coast to St. Mary's. The chapters are just the right length and full of many interesting facts about each landmark. At the end of each chapter there are detailed directions on how to find that location, times/days of operation and other vital information. The artwork found in each chapter is beautiful! This is a must for anyone traveling in the coastal region of Georgia or anyone who is interested in Georgia history.

Mitropoulos's career, method of working, extraordinarymusicianship are described in detail. Also described is his sweetnessand naiveté. Aside from some special pleading when he bashes other conductors in defense of Mitropoulos, Trotter does a fine job of pulling together the research of Oliver Daniel who died before he could write the biography.

When Dimitri Mitropoulos died in 1961 while rehearsing Mahler's 3rd Symphony the classical music world lost one of its most imaginative and original conductors. It was Mitropoulos through his New York Philharmonic concerts and broadcasts in the 1950's who really widely exposed American audiences to the works of Mahler (he gave the American premiere of the 6th Symphony). Trotter's biography gives an excellent account of his career from its early days in Greece and Berlin to his work in New York and Minneapolis. The backstage back stabbing that drove him from the New York Philharmonic is clearly laid out with names named and sources cited. To say the least some well known figures of the classical music world do not come out of this smelling too good.Trotter's biography will hopefully introduce to new
audiences to one of the 20th Century's great conductors who, within a few years after his death, nearly faded into obscurity.

I stumbled on the name Dimitri Mitropoulos quite by accident, as one never hears him mentioned much in the same way Karajan, Bernstein, and others are. Neither have I heard any of his recordings. This book helped me delve into this great man's life - what a singular purpose of mind he had - total dedication to his craft. William Trotter succeeds in giving us not just the details of his life (which, by themselves, are not exactly mundane), but also in bringing the reader the imagery, the depth of feeling of Mitropoulos' work. One can feel and see him conducting in his full glory. Having had this marvellous biography brought to me, I am now eagerly buying whatever recordings conducted by Mitropoulos that I can find. I agree with the other reader who commented - a discography would be most welcome.

Growing up in NC, I saw all of the sights along the coast of Civil War importance. I tramped across Fort Fisher and loked out to sea over the ramparts of Fort Macon. I visited Roanoke and climbed the earthworks left over from the burnside expedition. I live in a state which the Civil War changed forever. North Carolina contributed the most soldiers (besides Virginia) to the Southern cause, and quite a few for the North. It is wonderful to see such a well-written book about this state. Even if you are not a North Carolinian, this book will tell you a lot about the Southern war effort. Wilmington, NC was the only port that blockade runners could enter during the latter half of the war, and so most of the South's supplies came through there. This book is a wonderful read, and has a novel-like feel. Great for all Civil War Buffs.

This is one of the most excellent books I have ever read on the subject to the Civil War in North Carolina or any other theatre. It easily grabs your attention early on and holds on to it throughout the remainder of the book. It reads splendidly and the author does an excellent job in describing all aspects. Trotter definitely deserves serious recognition. It should be considered a major contribution to the Civil War reading community and a must for any serious student of the Civil War.

This is a remarkably easy to read history that grabs your attention in the very beginning and never lets up. It reads as easily as a novel and should be a must for lovers of North Carolina.

This is an interesting story not normal for World War 2 fiction. There is more music then weapons fire and more conversations then action scenes. It might even be called the thinking man's World War two novel. You have a full time conductor that is a part time German Nazi due to the war who is sent to Finland to work on convincing the local population that Hitler is one of the good guys. The author gives us a great view of Finland and details on the war effort with Russia.
It is a well-written book that has a difficult to pull off story line (by this I mean to keep it interesting for 350 pages), but the author gets it done. If you find a copy of the book it is interesting and different from the normal fair in the category.

Although this book is fictional, it gives an interesting and accurate look at Finlands war against Russia in the 1940s. Told from the point of view of a young German officer whose travels bring him accross evrybody in Finland from Sibelius to Mannerheim ...to forest nymphs!(I've ran into a few of those myself in Finland ;))

I picked up this book on an oil tanker I was working on. I had nothing else to read. For several days I was captivated. The settings in wartime Finland and Russia are outstanding, the perfectly flawed protagonist is wonderfully done. The premise is strange, but immensely appealing. I've recommended this book to others, including my father, an English teacher, (and he's a hard sell) and each person has acclaimed it. I cannot believe that this is out of print. The combination of war and intrigue, myth and mysticism, music and death, is superb. If you can get a copy, you'll love it. A tale of obsession, war, and love. You can't get much better than this. What I want to know is this: where is this author, and what else has he got?!

Finland, for obvious reasons, has rarely been on the center stage of world history. Therefore, it was a pleasure to find and read this book about the Winter War by Mr. Trotter. It gives an accurate description of the events leading to the war and the battle itself. I base this opinion on other material I have read in Finnish and translations of Russian perspectives. My grandfather fought in this war, and this book further builds my respect for his struggle at the time.

I would have liked to see more pictures and more detailed maps, thus the four stars.

The Russo-Finnish War of 1939 is remembered an obscure offshoot of the broader Second World War, but technically it was a self-contained conflict whose belligerents were not then parties to the conflict between Germany and the Allies. That said, the Soviet Union had just assisted Germany in the invasion of Poland - annexing its eastern provinces - and was regarded as unbeatable in this contest. Ultimately it did "win" - in the sense of getting more territory out of the peace settlement - but the win was entirely Pyrrhic, with vastly one-sided losses, numerous Finnish tactical victories (particularly north of Lake Ladoga where the Finnish "sausage" tactics decimated entire divisions of Russian troops) and catastrophically bad generalship. This book looks at the war from mainly a Finnish perspective, and there is little mention of the (infinitely less romantic) "Continuation War" of 1941-44, when Finland joined the Axis. Trotter is at his best when describing the heroism of individuals at the front: small units of lightly armed men conducting anti-tank operations; ski patrols cutting off Russian forces in the blinding snow; teams in the trenches grimly defending their positions against seemingly interminable waves of assaults. Superb military history.

I have read both William R. Trotter's "A Frozen Hell" and Engle & Paananen's "The Winter War: The Soviet Attack on Finland 1939-1940". In addition to these books I am in the process of reading 2 books by Max Jakobson, one of which is specifically on the Winter War, as well as a number of academic journal articles on Finland between 1937-1945.

Trotter has done a great job of recounting the Winter War from both the Finnish and Russian political and military perspecives, using available documents. I am an American-Finn who is very proud of my Finnish heritage, yet I was not insulted by Trotter's treatment of the Russian perspective at all - it was very enlightning. I prefer to understand ALL the "why?"s surrounding an event as momentous as the Winter War. It is nice to have some idea what the Russian reasoning and motives were, even if I don't agree with them. Life is rarely black and white as we would like it to be.

The short biography of Marshall Mannerheim in the beginning was especially useful. Understanding the man sheds light on his actions and opinions. It also explains a bit of the history of Russian-Finnish relations as well.

Improvements: More maps would be very helpful. Also, as a Finnish speaking American I can appreciate Trotter's attempt to make understanding easier for non-finnish speakers, however the occasional reference to places in Finn-glish was a slight annoyance. An example would be "... east of Lake Kuokjärvi" where the word "Lake" is redundant because the name of the place says it is a lake. This is a very picky detail and does not detract from the content.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed reading "A Frozen Hell". The more balanced and objective view taken by Trotter does not take away from the heroics and Sisu of the Finns. I also appreciated inclusion of a more detailed explanation on the surrounding political climate/situations.

Microsoft's "Close Combat" series has been a WW II tactical wargamers dream come true. The realities and effectiveness of World War 2 armaments are surprising to most computer gamers, and thus a strategy guide such as this can be very helpful in not only teaching the fundamentals of the game, but also showing how to apply the concepts of combined armed tactics in a successful manner. Inside Move's Strategy Guide does a very good job of expanding on the concepts described in the game manual. It also has a very nice historical overview of the Market-Garden operation. Small armed tactics are fairly well defined, by outlining how the author fought each set piece battle, and what the outcome of his endeavors was. These overviews are useful if the gamer is playing the stand alone battles, but is useless if playing the operations, or campaigns modes available in the game. (In fairness to the author, he states this fact in the introduction.)

The artwork for the book was very disappointing, with some pictures so small that they are hard to visualize. The deployment illustrations are a little confusing, consisting of screen shots of the playing area, with both German and Allied units placed on the same picture. This results in severe crowding so that in some pictures the units overwrite each other, rendering them unreadable. The final insult is the color illustration on the back cover which is a screen shot FROM THE FIRST GAME - "Close Combat" and not from "Close Combat - A Bridge Too Far"! Obviously this was either a gross editing error, or was the results of a rush job to get the book out to coincide with the games release.

Bottom line is this book will make a good companion to the game manual, but will not make your trip to Arnhem any easier than it was for Monty back in 44.

What can I say, this book is just simply great. If you need any help in Close Combat 2 just buy this book from this great bookstore.

Perhaps this book is aimed more at the gourmet cook with LOTS of space for storing all kinds of gadgets and tools! But I have been cooking from scratch for almost 25 years now, and I have not found a need for many of the tools this book claims are basic and necessary.

I did enjoy, however, looking through this book with its beautiful pictures. I also enjoyed learning about tools that I have never seen before! There are no doubt people who use tools such as the tomato press, nutmeg mill, bean slicer, and cheese dome, frequently and couldn't cook without them! Which gadgets a cook treasures is a very individual thing.

As for me, my favorite cooking gadgets are Kitchen Aid mixer (see my review of this on Amazon), garlic press, and a rotary grater for grating fresh parmesan cheese. My advice is to check out reviews of particular brands of cooking tools here on Amazon and on other cooking websites.

This book has many fold-out pages with pictures of MARVELOUS looking food! There are quite a few recipes and many have photos showing the various steps. Most of the recipes are on the gourmet-cooking end of the scale, rather than ones that would be easy to make and family-friendly.

My advice is to decide which tools you will need for YOUR style of cooking and then buy a quality product that will serve you well and will last a long time!

Please check out my other reviews - I've reviewed a number of cookbooks here on Amazon. Happy cooking!

I don't know how appropriate the title is (or how "essential" many of these items are) but I had a lot of fun reading through this book--which I did in one seating, and read almost the entire contents--quite a rare feat for what is essentially a kitchen gadget guide/cookbook I would think! Now I find myself coveting pricey mandolins and Indian woks. And no longer a complete kitchen gadget neophyte, I'm able to identify the most obscure tools at, say, the well-stocked shelves of haughty culinary kitchen shops like Sur La Table. The design of this book is intriguing as well--I like how some pages unfold to reveal a double-sized page...and if you're one to appreciate lustrous thick paper and engaging text layout (you know who you are, DK/Eyewitness guidebook fans), this book will probably catch your fancy. The content is interesting as well, it is sort of like reading "Cook's" magazine. The only drawback to the book is that although there are some recipes included, they don't seem to have any theme to them, and furthermore, there isn't an index...so while you're casually browsing the book, you might happen upon a potential recipe, but then when you try to go back and find it later, you have to flip through each and every page to find it again! Overall though, a fun book to go back to as a reference and inspiration.