Distribution Books

While the title is, admittedly, horrible, this informative, interesting and easy-to-read book covers all aspects of owning and/or being owned by a Jack Russell Terrier. Nutrition, purchasing a puppy, health care, and training are just a few of the topics addressed in this book. Everything is written in a simple and straight forward manner that is both educational and unpretentious. This is an invaluable reference guide!

I found this book to be inconsequential. The author could have condensed it to 20 pages and still would have gotten her point across. All the information on the sections were repeated in many different ways. The only beneficial portion in this book was "the least you need to know."

This is a wonderful book for anyone thinking of getting one of these fun and feisty dogs. Britt-Hay doesn't sugarcoat the fact that this is a special breed, and not meant for everyone. Yet, her love for the breed is evident through out the book.

I have owned JRTs for several years now and this book hits home hard. If you are even considering getting one of these dogs this book is the place to start. In fact, I gave it to some of the people who were planning on buying pups from us who knew nothing about the breed. It explained more than I could tell in an interview with a new or expectant owner. It made up the minds of some and disuaded others. It will always be a part of my collection of books on the breed beacuse it puts things in terms that non-owners can understand. This book is a "must have."

This book is great for teaching you how to live with a JRT, and it is perfect for people who are not quite sure if they can handle one. If I hadn't gotten this book I would never have known how to choose a puppy.

I read this book last night. It is a quick read but very deep in meaning. Less than 2 months ago I lost my first child at 17 weeks. I saw my tiny baby son but I never got to hold him. I cried while I read Bernadette's book but I found a lot of comfort in knowing that I am not alone in my pain. Her pain was very real and I am personally grateful that she wrote about her experiences. I could very much relate to her personal struggle with acceptance of God's will for her babies. Her Christian perspective was valuable and shows that being Christian does not mean we are perfect or don't feel pain. Thank you, Bernadette, for sharing your story with us.

I really thought reading this book would give me peace. Instead it made angry. Bernadette tells the story of how her husband Phil Keaggy, a singer I once appreciated and enjoyed, abandoned her while she lost her five babies (ie. didn't return home from concerts). She talked about her babies and then just blindly writes off her children's deaths as 'God's will' and 'meant to be'. I found there to be a great lack of depth to this book and no questioning whatsoever. How can a loving mother sit back and be okay with the fact that her children died? How can a father not be involved or even meet his babies? Reading the back of the book only the author's three living babies are mentioned which I found very offensive. Why weren't ALL of their children recognized? All this book did for me was make me angry. I can't sit back and go 'Okay my child died, oops, oh well' and that's what I felt the author was doing.

This book spoke to my heart. After suffering the horrible loss of 3 children through miscarriage...this book helped me gain perspective and a better understanding of the Sovereignty of God. It started me on the road to recovery. Of course, the holes left in my heart from those losses will never be filled...this book helped me look at where I needed to grow in my relationship with the Lord, as well as, how I could minister to others suffering from the same type of loss.

There are some deep places in everyone's heart where few dare to explore. Bernadette went there, and boldly decided to share her discoveries with the world. Her openness concerning the loss of her sweet babies is heart-breaking but inspiring. Thank you, Bernadette, for speaking to the hearts of so many! God bless!

I read this book in 1997. It was given to me after my daughter Rebecca was stillborn. She was five months along. I came to Amazon to find the book, as a friend has just lost triplets and I wanted to share it with her.

I was shocked to read the review of another woman who said that Bernadette just basically said, "Oops, my babies died." I'm sorry, but I'm just not sure how you missed her pain.

Maybe because I was still in a very wounded state myself, I was able to connect with her pain and loss and understand how she tried to understand God's plan in it all.

As a Christian, I do believe that every death is somehow allowed within the context of His will. That does not mean that he doesn't care or that he's mean. It's just that we are all small but important parts of something much bigger than we can imagine. That is the perspective I got from this book.

Bernadette also refers to a book by CS Lewis about grief. I can't recall the name of it, but when my father died two months later, I also read that. It put the pieces together of what Bernadette was writing.

With regards to her husband, Phil, I think far too much is expected of other believers. Jesus calls us to remove the 2x4 from our own eye before we try to pick out someone else's sawdust. It is true that her husband wasn't there for her. Mine wasn't either. Perhaps that slowed her healing, but it also may have helped it. Either way, it is often difficult for men to connect to the death of a pre-born baby. They simply don't "get it" until the baby is born.

They had marriage problems, too, and they aren't afraid to talk about them here. I am glad that in the end they found a way to keep it together. Many couples end their marriages over the death of a child. They grieve differently, and resentment is the result.

I don't believe Bernadette has written any other books, so if you're expecting a well written piece, you've come to the wrong place. Perhaps that's why the other reviewer missed her message.

However, if you're looking to connect with someone who has been through what you have, you will find it here.

I bought this book based on the three 5-star reviews listed before me and I have to say that I actually was disappointed in the book both for its artwork and aspects of the story.

I am not a fan of the general construction of the story. The beginning seems to have little to do with the middle or the end. Sarah is not allowed to go out into the field with the flock at night because she is a girl (not a boy or man/woman as the author explains in his preface). After some time (the aspect of how long or why this change in her newfound freedom is only vaguely addressed--because she's been 'practicing' ?!?)... Sarah is allowed to go out to the fields with her cousins at night. They witness angels descending from the heavens and they all follow into town to find the Savior. Sarah is first to arrive at the stable where Jesus is born and returns home to tell her father about her experience and revisits a story about the stars with him that was told at the beginning of the book. Very formulaic.

Parts of the story are left unexplained... (a miracle?) we still don't know why Sarah was able to reach the stable before her cousins (they left first). Unless the author is implying that the star that hung over the stable was either only visible to Sarah or that she was just able to figure out the mystery of 'which stable?' before her dim-witted cousins.

Furthermore, some of the writing is quite contrived for a modern-day children's story, in my opinion. When Sarah is out in the field and after "the sheep were bedded down," her cousins send her to fetch wood for "the evening fire." When father tells Sarah that daughters are "meant for weaving and baking flat cakes" she responds to him, "But, Father...why does my nose prefer the smell of sweet clover to that of bread dough?" (The only word missing there to make me close the book immediately is 'doth')

Sorry. I just can't get into this contrived story.

As far as the artwork, I have to say that I bought this book in large part because of the beautiful picture on the cover. But the artwork on the cover does not match the artwork within IMO. It looks to me almost as if it was done by two different illustrators. The cover has a sharp, almost 3-D image of an adorable, chubby cheeked little girl. The inside has flat, 2-dimensional, often fuzzy images. The only book comparison I can think of to make is that of The Polar Express (the book and and the move's artwork are identical.) Maybe it's just my eye, but I was expecting more of the 3-D artwork that was on the cover and what I found was very two dimensional art. But I mention this because the artwork was important to me and my purchase was largely based on this fact, so I felt it was worth mentioning. I will post a picture to let you make that determination for yourself! :)

This was a beauty book. I gave it to my niece for Christmas. Thank you the product arrived in excellent condition.

this story approaches the shepherds story from the outlook of a little girl shepherd very different but nice

I bought this book a few weeks ago and my daughter asks me to read it to her every night. She loves to put herself in the place of the main character. A fresh look at the Christmas story.

What a great book, for girls and boys! Both will love this re-telling of the Nativity from a new viewpoint ... in a story that is both exciting for children, and reverent. The illustrations are beautifully done, with warmth and colors that are almost mystical. A wonderful book!

The authors show good command over the subject. There are several key aspects mentioned in the book which are not obvious to everyone. The authors stumble on getting the right message out. In short, it's a very long book to cover a small subject.

Shoshanah Cohen gave a supply chain strategy workshop at a conference I attended and I received a copy of the book after the workshop. The book has a lot of good examples of what real companies are doing and I have been able to use some of the ideas in my own work. It is an easy read.

Finally, a book that explains supply chain strategy WITHOUT THE HYPE AND BUZZ WORDS!! The authors were right...this book should've been written years ago coz it will definitely enlighten those trying to unravel the intricacies in crafting a supply chain strategy. This book emphasizes the vital link between business objectives and supply chain strategy. The 5 core principles and its practical applications are discussed opposite real life examples of world class companies like Eli Lilly, Autoliv and the DoD, "the largest supply chain in the world." The frequent reference to the SCOR Model in the book only emphasize the power of the model in crafting and executing the 5 core principles the authors talk about. DON'T LEAVE FOR THE OFFICE WITHOUT THIS!!

Finally, a book that approaches supply chain management from the perspective that it is an integral part of a well-formed business strategy. By using solid examples, the authors illustrate how businesses can use strategic supply chain management to drive competitive advantage. In addition, the authors outline a practical framework to better manage the supply chain.

I recommend this book for supply chain professionals looking for a way to simply and effectively illustrate the competitive power of supply chain management. This book is also a must read for the non-supply chain executive looking for a way to tap into the power of supply chain management.

This book has a lot of stuff in it. It's got a good overview of how to look at your supply chain starting with the supplier of your supplier, and going through to the customer of your customer.

It's got a lot of real world examples, and each of the six chapters ends in a 10-page real world case study of a large corporation.

However, I just couldn't get into it, even though I read it cover to cover. This was a hard book to trudge through, probably because of its very narrow target audience.

This book is written to the level of Senior Vice President of International Operations at a $800+ million company. It's at a pretty high level and maybe that's why it was so hard to read.

With only a few minor modifications, this book could be called: "World Class Marketing" or "Quality Improvement: New Directions." It's technically about Supply Chain Management, but it's at such a very high level.

We use this book for supply chain training to new entrants at our firm. It is quite a good supply chain basics book - covering the topic in all its breadth. the coverage is perhaps a slightly less strategic and more technical than our needs - but that is understandable given the background of one of the authors. However, to be fair, it is the best book that we have found on supply chain management to get the people up to speed on the basics.

What I got was a second Indian Reprint, it costs around $4 in India, but I had to pay around $35 (shippment not inlcuded in this amount)! What an arbitrage!

I refered and used this book in 2 grad level courses. The first was a business school course on SCM (with an above average quantitative focus for a B-school course) and again for a fully quatitative SC Engineering course. While I was initially very impressed with the book, using this over 2 semesters has raised a few gripes.

For the qualitative issues on SCM {make no mistake, these 'fluff' aspects are very important} there is no other equal. Chopra and Meindl do an outstanding and comprehensive job. They also bring out the importance of using scientific, quantitative techniques for SCM. This however is where my gripes start.

Having brought out the importance of quantitative tools for use in SCM, they do only a moderate job on explaining these tools. For example, the chapter on forecasting (only the most simple and commonly used models are explained) is unnnecessarily complex and confusing. The topics covered are adequete but need revision. Treatment of inventory management also could be more detailed and better explained.

This is an excellent book but for more comprehensive learning (if you want an understanding of the quantitative aspects too), I think this book needs supplementing (say with course notes) or another book like "Modeling the Supply Chain" by Shapiro.

Written by one of the leading minds in the field, Peter Meindl of I2 technologies has a lot to teach. This is an excellent text and as a fellow Dallas/Ft. Worth resident, I would enjoy meeting him. If you are an MBA student with a concentration in Operations Management, this text should be required.

Meindl, a management team member of I2, has helped develop I2 into the undisputed champion in enterprise software. While SAP may have the market share with their archaic DOS based application, I2 has windows functionality and everything that matters. They have raised the bar with their supply chain knowledge, leading solutions, and collaborative knowledge in supply chain strategy. This text will give you a big step forward in becoming a Supply Chain leader.

I found this book to be a great source of reference for managers. It is not really a good teaching source, as I thought it already starts with a fair amount of assumed previous knowledge and jargon.

The sections that are most well developed are the ones on inventory management and transportation logistics, where I found examples that were directly applicable to situations I encountered in a retail environment. The portion on forecasting was not as useful, and the part on e-business seemed somewhat contrived. Overall, this is the best reference I have found that does not require a heavy amount of mathematical familiarity.

I use the book along with my Peterson Field Guide and am able to distinguish birds from each other by what the birds tend to eat, according to Birds At Your Feeder.

Some birds, from far away, even with your binoculars, may be so similar in appearance (size and color), and their visits to your feeders so short, that you can't get a good enough look a them. However, what they eat will help you to identify the birds. For instance, that small gray bird might be a titmouse, a thrush or a vireo. But what did they choose to eat from your feeders? Was it mixed seed, sunflower or suet? I flip through the Peterson Guide to select which birds might meet the size and appearance, and then refer to BAYF for what those birds most commonly eat, using process of elimination to identify the bird.

Here's the complete review from `Library Journal' (15 Sept. 1999), by Henry T. Armistead, Free Library of Philadelphia: "This superb book is distinguished from the dozens of others on attracting birds by its analysis of data from thousands of people who feed birds across North America and participate in Project FeederWatch, a survey begun in 1986 by Dunn and managed by Cornell University and other institutions. For the 93 most widespread feeder species, the authors present several pages of excellent commentary plus two range maps and four bar graphs. For each bird, there is textual and graphic information on its abundance (both geographical and through the yearly calendar), food preferences, behavior, habits, a drawing of the bird, and more. There is also some detail on birds and mammals found less frequently at feeders plus discussions of misconceptions about the perceived risks of feeders: concerns about dependency, disease, predation, and window collisions. A wealth of information is easily accessible here thanks to this massive cooperative program--a prime example of `citizen science'."

The title doesn't do justice to this book's breadth and depth. "Birds at Your Feeder" consists of ornithologically informed and delightfully written accounts of the feeding habits, behavior, distribution, and abundance of 93 North American species that often visit bird feeders. I bought the book knowing nothing more about it than Dr. Dunn's international prominence as an ornithologist at the Canadian Wildlife Service and a prime developer of Project FeederWatch -- and I wasn't disappointed. She and her co-author based the book solidly on an analysis of the data submitted by thousands of observers since 1987 in the immense network of FeederWatch volunteers across the U.S. and Canada. It seems to me that this important publication has not received the wide attention it deserves. A broad range of readers from professionals in ornithology to people with little more than a casual interest in backyard birds should find it both entertaining and worthwhile.

I found this book to be very helpful, and I refer to it frequently when I see a new species at my feeder. I like the way it lists the seed preferences for each bird. It is a very interesting book and has been very helpful to me in attacting backyard birds!

In addition to very interesting and often unique summary information on different species of birds attracted to feeders, the book includes birdfood ratings and maps that are ideal for people who are trying to determine whether the foods, water, etc. that they offer for birds were found to be as attractive by other birdfeeders, and whether particular birds were attracted to feeders in their local rural, suburban, or urban area, or adjoining state. By examining various graphs, they can also tell: how many of each species typically come at one time; how frequently they may come between different periods watched by other birdfeeders; and whether there is any monthly variation in visits between November and April, when most people are feeding birds.

"Using his talent to bring the boys next door in front of the camera, Underhill has developed a refreshing style and won a large group of fans. Boy Next Door is a collection of the most beautiful young men from California, photographed in a lively and erotic fashion."- text from Intermale

Great photobook by Steve Underhill. His art is both erotic and joyous; the smiles of his models light up the pages. Also welcome is Underhill's variety of models instead of the monotony of other photobooks. Wholesome celebration of the male body.

Steven Underhill's models are of a refreshing diversity, but his photographs are not. We remain caught in the same subjects, poses and scenery as if in a never-ending loop. Steven Underhill and the publisher should try something new - a little color can do wonders for a book.

I never had a boy-next-door like these guys. If I had, I might never have left home. These guys are hot and wholesome...what a wonderful combination. Ya' gotta' love this book.

I recommend this book for those wanting eye-candy tastefully
presented. The "boys next door" are a hot group and the
photographs are high quality.

Dave Abbott's CATCH THE IRISH LAUGHTER has even me -- a non Emerald Isle resident laughing. If as Norman Cousins said "Laughter is the best medicine" then this 122-page book is a medical recipe for any type of ailment.

Although Dave Abbott is known world-wide for his speaking humour his translation to the Gutenberg-format has caught this acoustical rhythm. From his Irish "Spy stories" to those about pilots will throughly exercise your laughing mechanisms.

Don't just stand there and listen to me: go buy the book.

Frank Ogden "Dr. Tomorrow"

A window into the Irish soul and psyche, Catch the Irish Laughter is a marvelous book filled with good Irish humour, history and, of course, a bit of blarney. Dave Abbott's reminiscences of his youth and the people he's known are an insight into the man and his heritage. Well worth the read.

Jim Reynolds Langley, B.C

What would an Hungarian/German immigrant know about Irish humour? After reading Dave Abbott's delightful book a lot more, and I enjoyed every delicious bit of Irish wit and wisdom included in this "must-have" book. Abbott is a great story teller, and a remarkably good writer: the two don't always come together in one person. There were dozens of jokes I of course had heard over the years, and having been briefly engaged to a "mad Irishman" I even knew a little about their origin. Abbott's work is refreshing and compelling, especially when he talks about the fascinating people has has known, such as Kathleen Behan. Moreover, the bit of Irish history he does include makes me want to read more about those "fightin' Irish." Just call me Monika O'Forberger!

Monika Forberger

Entertainment Vancouver

Vancouver, BC Canada

So glad i caught and am keeping Abbott's delightful new work. For it's a compendium of often hilarious and insightful gems whose narrative flows and sparkles like the Liffey herself. one happy customer, Nicholas

Dave Abbott's CATCH THE IRISH LAUGHTER has even me -- a non Emerald Isle resident laughing.

If as Norman Cousins said "Laughter is the best medicine" then this 122-page book is a medical recipe for any type of ailment.

Although Dave Abbott is known world-wide for his speaking humour his translation to the Gutenberg-format has caught this acoustical rhythm.

From his Irish "Spy stories" to those about pilots will throughly exercise your laughing mechanisms.

Don't just stand there and listen to me: go buy the book.

Frank Ogden "Dr. Tomorrow"

I'm currently half-way through Professor Tom Ferguson's course using this book (learning from the man himself!). We have so far covered the first 14 chapters/sections in 6 weeks. I have to compliment this book on its clarity and flow. The material itself is difficult, but the presentation of material in A Course in Large Sample Theory is as likely as good as it can get in book-form. Having the material presented by a professor is of course ideal but this book is certainly feasible for self-study yet rigorous enough for a first-year graduate course in statistics. There are plenty of (useful) examples in each chapter in addition to explanations. Further, the exercises in the book also have full solutions in the back -- pages 172-235 are the solutions (additional exercises on Professor Ferguson's website). If any book were to make this material feasible for self-study, it would be this one.

For those who want to take this material on for self-study: Pick this book but... this level of this book (ie, the material) is comparable to real analysis but with more direct applications. That is, an individual will succeed in using this book for self-study if (and perhaps only if) she has a good base in analysis and proofs and feels comfortable adapting that knowledge to statistics. An individual with little or no background in analysis proofs will have a very difficult time using this book for self-study. That said, if you want to learn the material, this book would be a prime starting location. If you don't have a good background in analysis, consider spending some time preparing by running over the theory of limits before engaging this book.

For those who are taking a course and are using this book, be happy your professor picked it -- it's clear and concise. This is a book worth buying. Due to the level of the material, rereading chapters is sometimes necessary but is easily manageable since chapters are concise and include examples.

Among the textbooks on the statistical large sample theory, it is perhaps one of the best. Very user friendly, logical from the beginning to the end, and full of intuition accompanied by rigorious mathematical developments. Only the book by van der Vaart can compete in terms of quality, although van der Vaart can be difficult for a student.

Ferguson has written an excellent book on asymptotic statistics. The theorems and their proofs are as clear as they can be. Measure theory and functional analysis are mostly avoided. Much like Rudin's books (though this one is easier to read), there is little fat and the results appear in a concise and easily remembered and referenced way. It is the most readable book on this topic that I found and is quite enjoyable to read.

Regarding its coverage, the book is more elementary than other books such as Asymptotic Statistics by Var der Vaart and is also slightly outdated. A consequence is that some important modern results are missing, for example asymptotics of M estimators, non-parametrics/semi-parametric, local normality. On the other hand, in order to cover these additional topics the book would have to be much longer and contain more advanced math.

If you are learning this topic for the first time, I can't think of a better book to read. If, on the other hand, you have already learned asymptotic statistics in some form and wish to learn more advanced and modern material you should probably use a different book.

Tom Ferguson's book is the standard at the UCLA Department of Statistics and for good reason. The book follows a logical format, essentially proving a different limit theorem/approximation in each chapter. The book is good for an advanced graduate 1 quarter/semester course in asymptotic theory, although some of the topics may have to be omitted. I wouldn't recommend reading this book by yourself since I find it to be very compact/concise. However, if you've taken a similar course already it makes an invaluable reference.

It is almost impossible not to recommend a book by Professor Ferguson, and this book is no exception. I will deviate slightly from typical book reviewers to mention a few noteworthy things common to Professor Ferguson's books. First of all, he writes mathematics clearly, concisely, logically, and in an organized manner. He is therefore an exception to the typical mathematics researcher whose writings look like running notes from a gauntlet runner or a gladiator running from a lion in an ancient Roman arena. I first learned graduate statistics from his 1966 book which I believe is titled Decision Theory or Statistical Decision Theory, and that book is as up to date in its information (aside from incorporating intervening studies) as though it were written today. Readers even outside mathematics should demand a reprint of that book if they want to learn real statistics. Professor Ferguson's character (I have met him) is as honest and open and logical as his books. His books do involve Lebesgue integration, as some other reviewers have mentioned, and I recommend that even non-statisticians hire a consultant or tutor to either teach them Lebesgue integration or to translate into approximate English or at least elementary mathematical language what Lebesgue integration does. I will try to discuss it myself either in a later addition to this book review or in another book review. My only criticism of Ferguson's books concerns the lack of representation of probabilistic alternatives to Bayesian methods (which I have been developing since 1980) in which, instead of dividing probabilities one substracts them and adds a constant. These have the advantage of being defined even when events have probability zero, unlike (Bayesian) conditional probability, and probability zero events are surprisingly common (e.g., lower dimensional events, extremely rare events assuming continuous random variables, etc.)unlike most people's impression - precisely because of arguments involving Lebesgue type integration. You can find abstracts of some of my papers on this at the Institute for Logic of the University of Vienna (on the internet).

This title is not up to the high standards set by McLachlan's other books. The text does not get into details which are thoroughly discussed
in McLachlan's excellent "The EM Algorithm and Extensions." Some important points are so condensed and in places so poorly presented that the the discussion is worthless. For example the important section 3.4 "Standard Errors", which underlies much of the discussion contains errors.
The book could be useful to a practioner who is only looking for guidance in fitting mixture models with available software. Unfortanately McLachlan's mixture software referred to in the Appendix, is not available. That's a pity because the advertised software features and design potentially rank it the top choice.
For a user who will use his own EM software to fit mixture models I would recommend highly the McLachlan's EM Algorithm book over the Mixture book.

"Finite Mixture Models" is an excellent reading for scientists and researchers working on or interested in finite mixture models. It provides a comprehensive introduction to finite mixture models as well as an extensive survey of the novel finite mixture models presented in the most recent literature on the field in conjunction with the prospective practical applications of them. In addition, the book is very well-written and it has the merit of the use of a consistent mathematical notation throughout the book.

McLachlan and Basford (1988) and Titterington, Smith and Makov (1985) were the first well written texts summarizing the diverse lterature and mathematical problems that can be treated through mixture models. Geoff McLachlan is the author of four statistics texts namely (1)McLachlan and Basford (1988) "Mixture Models:Inference and Applications to Clustering", Marcel Dekker, (2) McLachlan (1992) "Discriminant Analysis and Statistical Pattern Recognition", Wiley (3) McLachlan and Krishnan (1997) "The EM Algorithm and Extensions" Wiley and (4) McLachlan and Peel (2000) "Finite Mixture Models" Wiley. These four books are all related to the interesting problems in pattern recognition and clustering. Mixture models and the EM algorithm are tools used to solve problems in clustering and pattern recognition.

In each of his books McLachlan has shown an ability to be clear, authoritative, scholarly and thorough. He provides broad coverage of each topic with detailed references. This book is no exception. As he point out in the preface, the literature on mixture models has expanded tremendously since the appearance of his 1988 monograph with Kaye Basford making an updated text very appropriate.

Almost 40% of the 800 references in the text have appeared since 1995. The recent advances covered in the text include identifiability problems with mixture models, the analysis (fitting of mixture models) for real data sets using the EM algorithm and its extensions, properties of maximum likelihood estimators, applicability of asymptotic theory, use of bootstrap methods to assess accuracy of estimates, implimentation of Bayesian approaches through Markov chain Monte Carlo methods and the use of hierarchical mixtures-of-expert models for nonlinear regression as competitors to the MARS and CART algorithms.

This is a great book. Chapter 1 provides a nice overview of the subject with a thorough historical treatment, nicely presented in Section 1.18. In addition to the fact that it covers all the recent advances one can think of. The book also deals with fast implementations of the EM algorithm for data mining and other approaches to modifying the EM algorithm to handle large data sets. There is also a wealth of interesting real problems worked out in detail. These problems come from many disciplines, including interesting medical problems related to diabetes and hemophilia, nuclear test ban data analysis, image processing and competing risk survival analysis. It also covers some interesting aspects of multivariate normal mixture models and their applications.

McLachlan and Basford (1988) and Titterington, Smith and Makov (1985) were the first well written texts summarizing the diverse lterature and mathematical problems that can be treated through mixture models. Geoff McLachlan is the author of four statistics texts namely (1)McLachlan and Basford (1988) "Mixture Models:Inference and Applications to Clustering", Marcel Dekker, (2) McLachlan (1992) "Discriminant Analysis and Statistical Pattern Recognition", Wiley (3) McLachlan and Krishnan (1997) "The EM Algorithm and Extensions" Wiley and (4) McLachlan and Peel (2000) "Finite Mixture Models" Wiley. These four books are all related to the interesting problems in pattern recognition and clustering. Mixture models and the EM algorithm are tools used to solve problems in clustering and pattern recognition.

In each of his books McLachlan has shown an ability to be clear, authoritative, scholarly and thorough. He provides broad coverage of each topic with detailed references. This book is no exception. As he point out in the preface, the literature on mixture models has expanded tremendously since the appearance of his 1988 monograph with Kaye Basford making an updated text very appropriate.

Almost 40% of the 800 references in the text have appeared since 1995. The recent advances covered in the text include identifiability problems with mixture models, the analysis (fitting of mixture models) for real data sets using the EM algorithm and its extensions, properties of maximum likelihood estimators, applicability of asymptotic theory, use of bootstrap methods to assess accuracy of estimates, implimentation of Bayesian approaches through Markov chain Monte Carlo methods and the use of hierarchical mixtures-of-expert models for nonlinear regression as competitors to the MARS and CART algorithms.

This is a great book. Chapter 1 provides a nice overview of the subject with a thorough historical treatment, nicely presented in Section 1.18. In addition to the fact that it covers all the recent advances one can think of. The book also deals with fast implementations of the EM algorithm for data mining and other approaches to modifying the EM algorithm to handle large data sets. There is also a wealth of interesting real problems worked out in detail. These problems come from many disciplines, including interesting medical problems related to diabetes and hemophilia, nuclear test ban data analysis, image processing and competing risk survival analysis. It also covers some interesting aspects of multivariate normal mixture models and their applications.

A wonderful text that functions as well as a reference as it does as an introduction to mixture models. I was surprised by the depth and breadth of the book, which manages to describe almost every mixture model imaginable and then some more, including forms of the models themselves, parameter estimation and fit. Relationships between different models are made clear, lending the text a coherence that isn't undercut by vague generalities. The authors are particularly good at addressing issues of particular importance in mixture modeling, such as fit and model selection. Material is suprisingly recent as well. Overall, a great text that is probably destined to become the standard reference on mixture models.