Fabio Books

This is AMAZING! Fabman, as he is known to many, has outdone himself. Informative, well produced and worth every penny of the price. His book is a MUST have.

I could not put this book down! After 11 chapters i realized it was 12AM and i had to go to sleep. I was so insipired by the way in which the author explains how to take control not only your finances but of your life, health, family, and friendships. It is a very straight-forward approach to life as a whole and that to me is truly inspirational!

The Secrets of Wealth is an excellent resource on personal finance. But this is no boring textbook. It is actually written as a story (along the same lines as Rich Dad Poor Dad). Unlike Rich Dad, Poor Dad though, The Secrets of Wealth actually gives useful advice on how to achieve each step. Marciano breaks wealth building down to 10 secrets, and provides methods of implementing and using these secrets. The Secrets are revealed to the main character, David, by his mentor Mr. Mathers. Throughout the book are tips and techniques that anyone can use to improve their financial well being. The 10 steps aren't magical or difficult. Things like goal setting, investing, budgeting, and financial planning are nothing new, but Fabman gives you the knowledge and resources to actually achieve wealth. If this book cannot help you manage your finances, nothing can. Way to go Fabman!

This is a great book for beginners and intermediate-levels because it covers all of the basics in great detail. Unlike some get-rich books, this is more than just inspiration; it actually gives practical steps that are quite attainable for people who don't have much money. It gives information that is much needed by people who are in debt. Topics include planning, budgeting, building your investment portfolio (stocks, bonds, index funds, etc), getting out of debt, taxes, retirement plans (401k, etc), some real estate, and more.

This is the best book I have read on personal wealth and finance and I have read most of them out their. I highly recommend this book for getting your financial life in order.

The book is laid out in a story format that keeps you interested until the end wishing there was more(luckly there is as the author has just published his second book that I eagerly await). I could not put it down. The author does a great job of providing additional information along with recommended reading at the end of each chapter.

I just wish there was a book like this 5 years ago.... I highly recommend reading this title!

Egypt: Yesterday and Today

After reading this beautifully illustrated table-top book comparing Egyptian scenes of the past and present, we purchased it for our granddaughter who is planning a career as an Egyptologist. The artwork is super, and the narrative is clear and crisp. An outstanding gift.

Many books on David Robert's are small or not generous enough to allow you full scope to enjoy his paintings or they focus on his Levantine paintings.

This book is probably the best around that is not to expensive but gives you a feel for his grand Egyptian paintings. Some really nice ones of Sphinx, pyramids and also some of the lesser temples feature. The only other book which is now out of print that deals with this subject well is Peter Clayton's the Re-discovery of Ancient Egypt. Thames and Hudson.

This book is no more available in France (I'm from Paris), and I saw some sketches of David Roberts a trip in Aswan, so wished discover his work. I am delighted with this book. The high quality of printing, the intersting texts (even for a french citizen) are what was expecting. The most spectacular sketches are those of Isis temple that show the paintings on columns and ceiling nowadays disapeared. It is also fascinating to see the evolution of egyptian civilisation from 19th century and today, regarding way of life and architecture.
In one word : thank you mister Roberts.

As in the previous Roberts books, this format of a real-life photograph side by side with the artist's rendering of the same scene gives the reader a very reflective perspective into the Ancient World.

This is a most amazing book, it has both water colours and photos of the sights of Ancient Egypt. As a reminder of a special holiday or a factual account it is the best. The size of the book makes it prominent coffee table book and easy to just pick up and dip into another wondeful page.

this is a great book. lots of photos of the Leu family and tattoos. some good interviews too. get it while you can!

This book is beautifully photographed, filled with interesting stories and shared experiences of the Infamous Tattooing Leu family based in Lausanne, Swiss.

The Leu family are an incredably inspiring lot. This book catapults the reader into a crazy rock n roll world of art and freedom. It is my favourite coffee table book of all time.
GET IT.

How can one best describe this book? Its subject matter is the famous Leu family of Switzerland and their tattooing. However, "The Leu Family's Family Iron" is above all a book of art photographs produced by Fabio Paleari during a period of ten years' association with the family. And, perhaps even more important, it is a journey to wondrous worlds, worlds defined by Eastern and Western cultures as refracted through the unique lens that is the lifestyle of the Leus. The prose in this coffee-table sized book totals no more than a dozen or so pages and provides few intellectual distractions. In some books this might be seen as a shortcoming, but here we are freed to react emotionally and intuitively to the imaginative work shown.

Of course, one should not close a review of this book without reference to the tattooing style of the Leus. Some full-body designs are drawn from the traditional lexicon of Japan, but it is where the Leus depart from the this model (either in style or coloration) that the results are most interesting. A number of years spent in India are reflected in the use of both Sanskrit characters and the style of popular Indian decoration. Other images bring to mind the artwork of the Fauvists, of Peter Max, and of that large body of artists currently illustrating fantasy texts. Finally, it is worth noting that the living quarters of the Leus are fascinating in and of themselves, reminding us of the Baroque Age's cabinets of curiosities.

The family photo on the cover attracted me immediately, and then with each page I felt like I became part of the family. This is a "family album" of wonderful, hippie artists, living a life of art and travel. Their love for one another, and for their art, jumps off the pages. This is especially the case in the images near the end of the book of the family patriarch, Felix, living and working with cancer. Incrediblely powerful.

One previous review mentions the quality of the images; more important is the quality of the life, a life lived fully.

With all the due respect to the other authors I would say that if one is interested in a good theoretical book whihc is also good on the implementation side then the book of Brigo and Mercurion is definetly the best book I have ever read on the subject.

Anyone interested in implementing the LMM/BGM/MSS model in practice is well advised to read it.

I would just say that this is certainly a must have in the field.

In my humble opinion, this is the best book on Interest Rate modeling out there. The writing style is clear and focused and the appendices are fantastic. The book is rigorous but someone with some background in Stochastic Calculus will find it easy to follow. If you need refresher, dont worry the authors have you covered, see the appendix on Stochastic Calculus. Not an introductory book. Very exciting book.

In the late nineties I went through Brigo's innovative work on stochastic nonlinear filtering with differential geometry techniques. I was favorably impressed by results and style, particularly in his dissertation and in his 'geometry in present day science' very readable overview. Interesting results are found and nicely told with accurate - but not pointlessly complicated - advanced mathematics for the problems at hand, I reasoned.

I've followed a similar path from control to finance, and having worked with interest rate models, I couldn't help but order this Brigo-Mercurio book. I had high expectations 'cause these two guys are working in a bank on the real thing.

Sure enough I'm not disappointed.

1-factor models are handled with great care, a ton of formulas and recipes are given. I've never seen this kind of analysis of pricing with Gaussian 1-f models. The new upgrade of the CIR model is interesting and accurate. "CIR++" is now my favorite 1-f model. I like the treatment of lognormal 1-f models and the explanation of Monte Carlo and trees -- the flow-chart for Bermudan swaptions is crystal clear! Plots of market implied structures and volatility calibration are useful additions.

The chapter on 2-f extensions has one of the best discussions on volatility, and two tons of useful formulas/recipes. Two dimensional trees!

The HJM chapter size is OK. I agree - the useful models embedded in HJM are short rate models and market models.

Market models - these three chapters alone are worth the book. You'll find yourself nodding as you read the guided tour. They make it look easy all the time. The exposition is focused, clear, intuitive, detailed. There's also new stuff, just check the calibration discussion! Smile modeling begins with a brilliant tour and ends with Brigo-Mercurio's new approach - the mixing dynamics - deserving a whole chapter if expanded.

The detailed explanation on products is a much welcome original addition. Cross currency derivatives!

Quotes - as in Brigo's old work - are a pleasant diversion while reading. The 500 and more pages are a treat given the competitive price.

Still there's room for improvements - more "CIR2++"! Something on 3-f models. Historical estimation of the correlation matrix and low-rank optimized approximations. Expand smile modeling! More hedging. Something on structured products. Cross currency libor model. chapter 9 - other interest rate models - sounds out of place and can be suppressed for other things.

This book rings true and has useful teachings for students, academics and practitioners. Although it requires some background in stochastic calculus, it's hard to beat on the pricing front. Kudos to Brigo and Mercurio! It only harms there aren't enough books like this.

This recent book, written by two Italian "quants" Mercurio & Brigo, gives a nice and accessible overview of interest rate models which is a compromise between the practitioner viewpoint, expressed for ex. in Rebonato's book "Interet Rate option models"
and the theoretical viewpoint such as the one in Musiela & Rutkowski.
The authors, themselves PhDs in quantitative finance/ applied maths, wrote this book while working as quants in an Italian bank and this first hand contact with the market gave them a
practical view on the subject which markes this book very interesting.

The book contains a "rational" catalogue of models used in practice ( as opposed to models which are impossible to implement!).

In contrast with academic books on interest rate modeling which deal with HJM formulation, there is a lot of emphasis here on LIBOR and Swap market models
(BGM -Jamshidian models) which reflects the current market practice. This is a positive point since there are not many books with details on implementing and using these "market models".

Part II: Interest rate models in practice is particularly useful because it deals with implementation and calibration which, as any practitioner knows, are important and usually delicate issues.
However calibration issues are dealt with somewhat lightly, especially recent developments on modeling cap/swaption smiles
are not included here.

This book can also be used for a graduate level/PhD course on interest rate models.

There are a lot of numerical examples in the book and mathematics is kept to the necessary level while keeping the
approach both rigorous and understandable.

Overall, it is one of the best books written on the subject.
I highly recommend it to PhD students, quants and researchers interested in this field.

This is the best book available on interest rate models. Very detailed. Much more focused and readable than Rebonato's book. More pragmatic and explicit than Musiela and Rutkowski. Not as theoretical as Hunt and Kennedy. James and Webber also looks very good, but I'm not that familiar with it. All other books have only bits and pieces on interest rates.

Since my husband is from Marche, I enjoyed reading this cookbook with the side descriptions of life in the province. Some of the recipes would be difficult to make here due to ingredients, but there are some Marche favorites that are delicious.

This book is based in large part upon the story of the Familia Trabocci,
That story gives the reader/cook some real insight into the spirit of the food which is made with the excellent recipes. This is not really a cookbook for the beginner because, although it has very fine illustrations of dishes on the table, there are few procedural illustrations and many of the regional ingredients may be difficlt to obtain. It is a fine book of the cooking and customs of a region of Italy. Buy it and read it, you will enjoy it! You should also try to reproduce the cooking through some of the recipes in the spirit of the region.

I love Fabio's cooking. It's Inspired and exploding with amazing flavor. Fof over a year and a half worling in Maestro, I didn't always understood where the genious came from. This book has allowed me to understand a lot about him.

The recipes in the book are not your typical italian fare, it's a rustic, culinary treasure from a relatively undiscovered region of Italy. Very recomendable.

Part travelogue, part cookbook, Cucina of Le Marche intersperses its recipes with family memories and great storytelling. This is not just a cookbook to quickly consult over the stove; it's a book you'll want to curl up with and really read. Some of the recipes are fairly involved, but the writing is easy to follow and what I've made so far has been delicious. The rice and spinach soup with prosciutto and parmesan is heavenly, and the Le Marche risotto is easy to make but super yummy (the secret ingredient is cinnamon). Beginner cooks, advanced chefs and avid readers should all find something to love here.

Even with all the amazing restaurants in New York, I still crave the delicious food at Trabocchi's restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton in VA. With this cookbook I can bring a little bit of his cuisine to my own kitchen. Bravo!

As an avid cookbook collector, this is my favorite 2006 acquisition. I have been a devoted fan of Maestro, Chef Trabocchi's marvelous DC area restaurant and have been eagerly awaiting the publication of this book to learn more about his inspirations and bring some of the magic into my own kitchen.

Even if you haven't had the privilege of dining at Maestro, this book is a must-own for anyone who appreciates authenticity and a unique take on a traditional cuisine.

Buy this book and be prepared to fall in love with Le Marche!

First part of the book while describing Distributed Systems, Middleware and EAI lays strong foundation for Web Services. Second part of the book provides an extensive reporting about Web Services Architecture, related standards, service composition and BPEL. Though at the outset this book looks like serving academic purpose but it also provides the great insight of the subject to the programming community.

This book is must have which draws detailed conceptual and architectural views on Distributed Systems, EAI and Web Services.

This book is a little more expensive than most of the flashy Web Services books these days but it is well worth the money. Set in small font and not wasting pages on chapters like "History of XML and SOAP" this book is dense in content on the architecture of distributed systems, including Web Services. We get to learn about the issues of distributed transactions and the differences between conversations, coordination and orchestration. The text is precise but nevertheless easy to follow. One of the best books I have seen on Web Services architecture.

You can find a sample chapter on the author's site:
http://www.inf.ethz.ch/personal/alonso/Web-book/Chapter-5.pdf

I am using this book for a graduate level class about Web Services. I like the books approach on giving you enough background about middle-ware evolution that makes it easier to understand what Web Services are trying to accomplish. Given that the actual technology (implementation details) change so much in this area the books approach makes a lot of sense. I also found explanations to be concise and clear.

Advice: if you are looking for a hands-on how-to book about XML this is not the book to pick up. Otherwise, if you are looking for a good fundamentals book that will help you paint a big picture of Web Services this book is great!

A very nice introductory book on Web services, much different from all the others on this topic.
Excellent overview of the problematics of service oriented architectures on the Web and of their relationships with their EAI counterparts (corba,rpc,..).

If you want comprehensive high level overview of today's enterprise software landscape, this is a must-read.

One of the best books which answers the question , Why Web Services?? Unique perspective on middlewares in general.

Do not expect any code examples or details of any particular middleware.

Readers will no doubt wonder why they would want to read this book rather than a myriad of other coffee table books on the subject of the Roman Empire. I can not claim that I have read
"almost all" of them. I have not. I have read only some of them. What makes Liberati's book different... and better... than these others is that she organizes her work topically and not just geographically.

The pictures are scrumptious, simply scrumptious. The picture on the cover is bettered by a plethora of other pictures in the book. A *two-page* picture of the Coliseum appears on pages 18 and 19. Then come pictures and text portraying the history of Rome. These are followed pictures which show the promulgation of Roman civilization throughout Italy and throughout the ancient world. There are pictures of the Las Farreras aquaduct, the Temple of Diana in Nimes, and the port of Caesarea.

She is not just presenting a bunch of pictures. One could find out something new. This is a fascinating book for anyone interested in Roman history.

The strength of this exquisite book is in the pages of beautiful reproductions of artifacts and artworks from throughout the history of the Empire. On 292 pages, the book encompasses 358 color photos, 30 color drawings (mostly architectural) and 45 maps.

The book is organized in five sections - an overview of the 11 centuries of history; social aspects from shelter to spectacles; the splendors of the capital; Roman civilization in Italy; a tour of the Roman provinces.

The text is accessible and the captions are packed with information but the illustrations are not only breathtaking but representative of every aspect of Roman civilization. An excellent introduction to Roman history or a valuable addition to a collection.

In Ancient Rome: History Of A Civilization That Ruled The World, Anna Maria Liberati (Museum of Roman Civilization, Rome, Italy) has effectively collaborated with freelance journalist and art history expert Fabio Bourbon to lay out a beautifully illustrated and thoroughly "reader friendly" coffeetable artbook showcasing the architecture, politics, culture, art, and artifacts tracing the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. An ideal addition to school and community library collections, the hundreds of full-color images (many of them never previously published and available to the general public) wonderfully enhance an informed and informative text making Ancient Rome especially accessible and recommended to the non-specialist general reader.

This book is not much on narration -- but it isn't really supposed to be. The book is filled with outstanding photographs, prints, drawings, maps, and architectural plans that will be useful to anyone in the business of teaching social studies. This is one of those wonderfully inexpensive oversized hardcover books that makes you feel good just by owning it.

A very well done, review of the life of Frederick Catherwood, as well as an excellent description of the mid 19th centuries London, Paris, and New York. The efforts of the first archeological efforts, and how were the must important archeological discoveries at that time. With the beautyful work and potraits of Catherwood

Excellent

Fans of Stephens and Catherwood should very much enjoy this volume. Catherwood is neither featured - nor ignored - in Stephens' "Incidents of Travel in Yucatan" set - their travels together being the source of most of the included drawings. This book, however, focuses not only on Catherwood's intriguing artwork, but reveals a good deal about the life of the man himself. Especially considering the price, this book is not only a must for those interested in the Mayan civilization, but also for the story of one of the first white men to discover and document this great culture for the rest of the world.

In reading the The Lost Cities of the Mayas : The Life, Art, and Discoveries of Frederick Catherwood by Fabio Bourbon, one must first take in and enjoy the full folio size color reproductions of Catherwood's engravings and drawings. The vast aray of sumptous images and the clear and concise text that takes you on an adventure through the life of Frederick Catherwood, the first real Indiana Jones is a joy to read and imagine! Oh to have lived in the 19th c. and been on the first real archaeological journey through mexico and central america, documenting the opening up of an ancient civilization to the world. A must for the adventure reader and explorer.

I have read all of John Loyd Stevens books and this is an excellent addition to my library. I would say this book is a must for all you amature Mayanists. Many times I have wished I could tag along with the great adventurers, Stevens and Catherwood, this is the next best thing! I also recomend all of John Loyd Stevens work. You might also check out "A Tourist in the Yucatan" A fun thriller, adventure set in the Yucatan.

These books deserve a 1000 rating, never have these frescoes been covered this well by anyone. The people who have seen these books would agree they are beyond superb. I have seen some of these frescoes and you cant even get behind the altars to get a dead head on shot and most churches wont let you use a flash for photography.

Even if you could use a flash you would never get the brightness of diffuse illumination these books have captured so well, crisp but all the subtle color blends are captured.

These books allow you to see some details you would not see standing in the churches unless you had binoculars,even then the angle would cause distortion.

The color accuracy is great, it is too bad it is not cost effective to print on a satin surface paper as this would provided some of the glow effect real frescoes have, the sheen surface is unique to fresco alone and hard to reproduce.

Credit not only goes to the author and photgrapher but to Abbeville press for stepping up to the plate, this would have been a publishing risk,and for Abbeville to back such a venture with such outstanding quality puts them at the top of the stack in the world of Art book publishing.

These periods of art will never be re-captured, nor will patrons or artists ever tackle projects of the scope found here. This art represents one of the outstanding moments in human evolution. The treatment of fresco at this level is long overdue as most art books cover oil painting, drawing, pastel, printmaking, and sculpture.

I should also mention the great job they did in selecting artists, with all due respect to the "BIG M" , (Mr.Michaelangelo, the vaticans most abused poster boy ),it is great that other outstanding artists from this period finally are allowed to get out of The Big M's shadow in the publishing world. (For every one book about Fillipino Lippi, there are 50 about Marble Mikey, I love the guy,...TOP CHISEL...TOP BRUSH but his fame has left a lot of other good artists ignored by publishers when it comes to fresco,Raphael gets covered a lot, but never the Hall of Constantine, like Romano did a hack job...)

TO ALL THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE FRESCOES AND THESE BOOKS, PLEASE WRITE TO ABBEVILLE PUBLISHING AND DR. STEFFI ROTTGEN AND SUGGEST THEY CONTINUE INTO THE EARLY, MID, AND LATE BAROQUE AND EARLY NEO-CLASSICAL STYLE FRESOES IN ITALY. MANY OF THESE PALACES ARE NOW CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC SO THE WONDERFUL FRESCOES WILL NEVER BE SEEN, THE ONLY HOPE WOULD BE THAT ABBEVILLE OR SOMEONE LIKE THEM WOULD TAKE UP THE CAUSE.

We need
1) Pitti Palace -Pietro Da Cortona rooms and The Hercules room
NO PHOTO TAKING IS ALLOWED
2) The Altieri Palace - Carlo Maratti,and freinds
3) Barberini Palace - Pietro Da Cortona (Details)
4) The Borghese Palace
5) The Pamphilli Palace and Dore
6) Maybe Luca Girodano at Medici in Florence
7) Farnese Palace
8) Some Conca, Chiari, etc.
there are a whole truckload of fresco's from Baroque Rome
9) some --- Venice, Balogna, and Naples(Tiepolo, Veronese, and Tintoretto are covered in a lot of other books).

These books are well worth the price, keep them coming Steffi!!!

This book (and it's predecessor -"The Early Renaissance")provides a comprehensive and easily approachable - not to mention magisterial - review of the art of fresco painting. The text is authoritative and should satisfy both expert and neophyte alike - but the glory of the book is the colour photographs by Antonio Quattrone. I've been collecting art books for nearly 50 years and have never seen colour photographs to match his magnificent work.For those who are unable to see these frescoes in situ, their beauty - and brilliant colour - will come as a revelation.

If you've ever stood in Florence's Santa Maria Novella,looked up at the walls to either side of the altar, and wanted to know more...this book and it's companion volume are exactly what you would wish for. These books are beyond description, both for the quality of their photography and the background and interpretation of the fresco cycles they present. As another reviewer said, please - produce a few more of these beautiful books covering other Italian fresco work!

Of all three books, this is my favorite. I so much enjoyed each and every stop along the Mississippi the boys got to visit. I also respected that the boys were able to explore the boat and the cities along the way on their own with trust from their parents. To add mystery to the book, Tom and Paul meet Josh Higgins whom is filled with knowledge of the river and the River Queen Paddle Boat. The ending truly grabs your interest. A must read.

This story of a family's riverboat cruise down the Mississippi from Saint Paul to Saint Louis includes history, culture, and geography of the river and its towns. The stories of a former riverboat captain and the beautiful photos make the history of paddleboats come alive. Although fiction, the novel becomes a fascinating travelogue that inspired me to look into taking the cruise myself. This book was written for teenagers, but can be enjoyed by people of all ages.

This book is full of fun, facts, and historic knowledge about the amazing river and riverboats. The author's descriptive narratives are as if you are on the boat yourself experiencing the adventures and viewing the beautiful sites. Remarkable photography of the magnificent sites is spread throughout the book. All ages would enjoy reading this book and learning more about the paddleboats afloat the Mississippi.