Robert Prentice Books

I found this book very ensightful, and easy to understand. Karen Linde explains different drills, and ideas in a detailed description. I recomend it to all begining coaches. I used it to write a research paper about softball and found it very helpful. It was very weird, that after using the book, I ended up playing for Karen the next year in college, and she defenately knows what she is talking about.

Robert Hume's The World's Living Religions succedes in many ways by giving a general overview of the eleven living world religions. For someone not familiar with the origins of Buddhism, Hinduism, or Sikism, the chapters are outlined in a very organized manner. Some of the lesser known religions like Zoroastrianism have a little less information than the three aforementioned religions. However, at least some factual coverage is better than nothing at all. Good comparisons are made here and there.

Some of the commentary on the religions are certainly biased. Some of the commentary on the Islam faith is certainly a bit inflammatory especially when compared to Christianity. Yes, maybe there are some aggressive tones to the Islam people. However, Hume needs to express them a little more diplomaticly.

The same holds true with Judaism. Hume takes many things out of context from the Torah. If Hume had researched Jewish prayer books, he would note that they refer to G-d as a loving deity not as a vengeful one. Certainly more research would show that confession is not a part of the Jewish lifestyle because our G-d is depicted as loving master who readilly forgives us. There is nothing wrong with going to confession. However, this and other aspects of the Christianity do not necesarilly make it a stronger or weaker religion than Judaism or any other faith for that matter.

Some aspects of the foundation of Christianity are quite interesting. However, people need to realize that the Romans not the Jews crucified Jesus. Hume's commentary seems a bit slanted here again.

Again, this book gives a good overview. However, a more neutral tone in spots would be greatly appreciated.

Some parts of this book could have been written the same way by a monkey. It is typical of computer science profs to know their material, but be completely inept at communicating it. Kruse/Ryba are no exception. The sections on binary search tress and AVL trees are written in nearly impenetrable prose, for example. The attempt at describing some of the rebalancing operations is laughable. 10 minutes on the wikipedia entries for trees can save you a few wasted hours with this text. When it comes to introducing some of the mathematical analysis of some of the algorithms, they assume the audience knows many kinds of proofs and theorems and don't bother to give reminders along the way in deriving their formulas. Thus, the mathematical proofs for algorithm analysis appear to take great jumps if you're not familiar with the math behind the proofs. I would love to see how a skilled teacher actually communicates these ideas because I'm sure it would be far less dense than this book. Way to go Kruse/Ryba, in making yet another inaccessible computer science book that turns the audience off to the subject.

I believe this book is a great introduction to algorithms and data structures. It's so clear and well-written that you can actually sit down and read it just for fun.

If you are looking for a book from which you can copy the code line-by-line and paste it in your compiler, then it's NOT the book for you.

This is a great book! I don't know why other reviewers are so aggravated with it, but I find it to be one of the clearest and ideally arranged books on data structures that are out there. It is also useful to mention that the great illustrations relaxed my eyes and worked a great deal on strengthening the point, making sure I understood the concept behind the algorithm.

This book is horrible. It's badly written code wise and also in a literary sense. The author takes good examples and ruins them. Also he makes up his own terms to replace supposedly bad ones. The code is poorly written and contradicts the authors supposed "style." He make use of breaks when ever possible, and then tells you that the use of breaks is not good practice. He also typedef's beyond reason. I would strongly recommending NOT buying this book. I unfortunately had an equally idioic teacher who requried this book.. be warned steer clear.

I just finished an online course on data structures at UMass, Lowell (secured an A grade without any problem) and this is the textbook used for this course. I agree with some of the comments made by the reviewers here - that typedef's are used beyond reason, code is presented in fragments. I must strongly disagree with the reviewers who said - the book is not worth the money (it's cheap if you buy a used one), it is a bad book, useful only as a paper weight. The strong plus point for this book is that it presents theory well - there are many figures using which it is easy to understand complicated stuff. The other plus point is that it also analyzes the performance of algorithms and I felt the book does a great job of explaining this part in clear terms. The main drawback is that the code is fragmented and spread out, which is certainly frustating. Also, in order to get the code to work on a compiler (I used Microsoft VC++ version 6), you will need to "fill in the gaps" as most code examples (I tried 90% of the examples in the text on MVC++ compiler) are by no means complete but this was not difficult. You can download the code from the publisher's website and the code is actually not organized into different files (sorted by chapter and example) but it comes in a few files where examples from different chapters are mixed. You will have to search and find the part you need. I do agree usage of dummy functions creates confusion. This book has a rocky start with the life game example, which was not very easy to follow with the explanation provided. While I was frustated with the first two chapters, the rest of the chapters are presented well. To the reviewer who said that the code has bugs (which certainly isn't true), my guess that the gaps are not properly filled. I patiently tested most of the code on the computer (after filling in the gaps of course!) and find absolutely no problems with it. This however took lot of time since significant effort is needed from the student to fill the missing code to make it work. I have supplied working code to my fellow students who were facing difficulties in getting the code to run. In a couple of places in the text, the author surprised me with C syntax I did not know was legal (I consider myself intermediate programmer).

I suspect the reason why many readers have problems with this book is two-fold: 1.The code is not available in a format that can be tested on the compiler. Having read a lot of CS books which supply with readily usable code, this book gets annoying. I was wondering why the authors did not give downloadable working code for all examples in the text (which is a definite minus point) 2. The reader will have to go back and forth between the chapters as some functions developed in former chapters are used in later chapters. This does get irritating. I have read books that do this to a ridiculous level but this book stays with in tolerable bounds.

I will not rate this book as the best one on the subject out there but it is definitely good enough to learn data structures. I have used another book as a supplement: Data Structures & Algorithms in Java (Mitchell Waite Signature Series) (Hardcover) By Mitchell Waite, Robert Lafore ISBN: 1571690956. This book has lot of applets that show step by step how algorithms work. I am a visual learner and this helped tremendously. However, I felt that Waite Series book did not present the theory as thoroughly as Robert Kruse's text.

In summary, I consider this book as "decent". I was very much concerned when I first purchased this text because of so many bad reviews. As it turns out, those that can understand C and are willing to sit in front of the computer to make the code samples in this book work need not have any fear. As I said earlier, the theory is presented well, and all it needs is patience and diligence from the student to go through the code examples on a compiler. I believe that I now have a good understanding of the subject and I can move on books that deal with it at more depth. There are a plethora books on this topic out there and there may be better books than the ones mentioned in this review.

This book covers all fundamentals of java programming.
I needed more advanced topics and examples in OOP and threading using java

Things I dislike about this book:
Cheap layout. Looks like it was desktop published by a so-so amateur. Black and light blue...how very 80's textbook.

It's Virtually useless for the cetification exam (SCJP)...get Kathy Sierra instead. It's weak on threads and inner classes apparently don't exist. The explanations are not suited toward the beginner as they gloss or assume prior knowledge of many aspects of the language.

Coded examples tend to be too hard for the beginner as they contain multiple concepts, which can confuse some.

Things I like about this book:
Coded Answers to ever other question.
Some coded examples.

In summary I wonder what the target audience is of this book. The beginner -> then it fails, the intermediate? With no inner classes and a weak treatment of threads...I think not...then who...certainly not the advanced Java programmer.

I think you'd do better to pocket the hefty price of this booka nd spent it on something more apt (Java 2 primer plus isn't too bad, or Head FIrst Java for the novice Or Walter Savitch if you need a textbook).

No, this book is just too expensive and too weak for what you pay. Even Deitel is significantly better. Look elsewhere.

You need to KNOW programming to read this book. It is not a almost perfect book but a very good book!

Overall, this is a good book. I've
gone through much of chapters 1-4, some of 5-6, and
a little of chapters 17 and 19.
Chapters 1-4 are solid and (I think)
about at the right level for the intended
audience. Some of the examples in Chapter 5
(which focuses on arrays) are a little heavy.
Learning Java arrays is difficult enough
without adding concepts such as mean and
standard deviation into the mix. Also, the
two-dimensional array examples are probably
beyond the grasp of most beginning students.

Overall though, I'd give the book a thumbs up,
so far. It doesn't make the mistakes that other
Java books make, such as introducing GUI or Object
Oriented concepts before teaching methods, loops,
and arrays. For example, I've had a chance
to look at the "Head First Java" book. I think
it makes the mistake of introducing Object Oriented
programming too early on. If you don't understand
loops or methods, etc., then you can't work with
Java objects. Further, the "Head First Java" book
also goes out of its way to be funny. While I think
there's certainly room for humor in teaching,
most people don't set out to learn Java for the fun of it.
They need to in order to earn a living.
So, as dull as this book is, I'd recommend it so far.

I've reviewed many of the Java textbooks on the market and have compared their coverage with the objectives of the Sun Programmer certification. I have yet to find another book that covers as much material in a well-explained manner. It does assume that you have programming experience. This is definitely not your Idiot's gude / for Dummies level of book. The book contains many, detailed examples which demonstrate effective use of code. If you want a reference book look to the O'Reilly series, if you want at textbook get Liang.

I used this books to teach around 35 students in a coporate environment. I didn't see any problems with it. I liked the looks of it; color and pictures make it interesting! There may have been one or two little errors, but nothing major that I saw. My adult students liked the book and are using it as a reference.

my school was selling this book (spiral-bound) in a package deal along with Computers Are Your Future for the ridiculous price of $134.00. This book, which doesn't feature the spiral bound convienience (who really cares?) was not even $40.00, along with the other that I found for $45.00. I'll take $85.00 any day over $134.00. Shipping was a little delayed, but that's ok :)

Ok. First thing first, THIS BOOK REQUIRES A LIC. KEY WHICH (at this time) IS NOT AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE SEPARATELY. I know, I called Prentice Hall, and while they sell Lic. keys for some of their other books, they don't for this book.

You will not be able to log on to the website to take the tests. Lic. keys are not renewable, so if you have a used textbook, the lic. key won't work!

I made the mistake of buying this book used and ended up having to spend more money buying the new textbook. If you do buy this book used (for personal use, I guess) make sure it has the 3-cds which are supposed to come with the book. The vendor did not mention or include the 3 Cds.

This text has several problems:

1. Beware the redundancy and the small nuances of incorrectness. Certain information is not specific nor entirely accurate.

2. Beware the tediousness. It takes a LONG time to get through the projects, especially if one is experienced with the program all together.

3. Watch out for instructors who will use this book but have little computer experience. They are usually unable to follow the complicated instructions and it can be frustrating to both students and the instructor.

4. And just for those of us who have been using computers since they were born; it's rather easy to not have to read the instructions for projects once one gets the hang of it. Also, the finished product pictures inappropriately at the start of each unit help as well.

This is a rip off!! Instructors use this ONCE so there are no buy backs. Gaskin will make her profit and the students are paying!! refuse to buy, or form a co-op like my class did!

I would give zero stars if possible!

I have studied, practiced and taught managerial accounting for more than 17 years at work, using excellent supporting text and case books from recognized US authors. But to be honest Dr. Kaplan is making easy concepts to appear complicated and cumbersome. His case readings as well as the text materials are very length and hard to "digest" since it does not capture the attention of the reader.I would not recommend the book neither for and undergraduate or graduate degree, despite the well known and worldwide recognition of Dr. Kaplan. His book is far from being pedagogical in nature.

MBA students alike may not even have the patient to read through it. But, as a management consultant in China ( i used to work for 2 of big 4 accounting firms, and now working as a freelance to help local companies to solve their managerial costing problems), this book is my primary reference for my work. I applied ideas in this book helping my clients building ABC and transfer pricing and costing control models. When you really need to solve true business problems (rather than reading in the school), you will find this is "the" book. In my view, you have to read Kaplan and Cooper's staff if you want to get some true knowledge about managerial accounting.

I have studied many aspects of financial and management accounting, management issues, etc. from introductory to advanced levels. I have never used such an unappealing book. The student must sift through much wordiness. There are few, and sometimes no examples of the various calculations. There is very little use of white space. Virtually no colour, no use of bullets. Not only is the material presented in a "dry" form, but the book is not pretty to look at. The most praise I can give this book is that it is not too heavy to carry, and it has a pretty blue cover.

The explanation is too long, examples are vague, ambiguous and the cases provided is not really relevant to my level of knowledge. This book might be best for PhD holders, but not for me who is an undergraduate. My lecturer also complained that the explanation used is not suitable for our level. No interesting graphics or colour to attract readers.

This student textbook assumes a basic of management accounting. Well, I was known with the terms, and understood their examples, but completely lost track at the cases. At first I thought it was due to my language knowledge, but colleague students had the same problems and couldnot explain to me which information to use, which parts of the cases was useful and what was rubbish. Of course 'management accounting' is about retrieving the correct information, but it was a few steps to early for me.

While I will admint I am no math wiz. This has got to be wone of the mmost poorly presented treatments of a difficult I have encountered. Too bad many schools will force you to use it...

In fact I would say it is a downright shame!

order was not shipped the same day, so seller gave me a discount and I still received the book pretty quick. Great customer service. The book is in mint condition.

I love this book. It explains the formulas and how they are made very well, in clear English. I will definitely keep it for future use. I've always loved College Algebra and this book can help me continue to learn it.

Pros:
- Explains well
- Great examples
- Descriptive
- Answers in back of book
- Whatever questions you have, it answers it

Cons:
- Very heavy
- The material doesn't stick in my head right after reading it (but that's my problem)
- When doing some of the problems I couldn't derive, from the examples shown, the answers
- Offers only odd answers to problems
- Gets dirty easily
- There were other things I didn't like, but I forget.

Overall: Great book! I love it.

This book is by no means meant to be a primary text. It clearly states it is a review textbook to help prepare you for tests. This it does decently except that there are many simple mistakes that detract from its usefullness.
By no means am I a Mathematics expert, but this book has too many glaring errors. See Chapter 4 in particular, they even answer some of their own test questions wrong. For example problem #23 or pages 71-72, the graph is totally wrong I can tell with out using a calculator.

How dare someone release such a poorly checked text.

In his latest update of this text, Sullivan takes the reader through a high school or undergraduate level course in algebra. Though the title says "College", all of this material is also eminently do-able at the high school level, for advanced students, aspiring to major in maths or science. While at the university level, it appears to be targeting those students not majoring in maths, physical science or engineering.

Why? Because the dividing line is calculus. The book gives a good treatment of what you should know in maths, up to, but not including, calculus. It also has a chapter on probability. Which I don't think is usually considered part of algebra. But, pragmatically and correctly, Sullivan chose to include it.

The text has numerous examples, with only a little emphasis on a strict derivation of theorems. Another indication that it does not target a maths major. Sullivan gives informal explanations that should suffice to satisfy most readers.

Each chapter also has a prolific number of problems; around one hundred. Very suitable and convenient for a lecturer [you?] to assign as homework, since the book only supplies answers to half of these. Enough to keep your students happily [?] busy.

No new science here. Pieces and parts borrowed from exisiting bodies of research muddled with inaccuracies.

This is a great text book for understanding and mastering the concepts of geological remote sensing. Dr. Vincent best illustrated the physical and geological features of geological remote sensing, and made them easy to understand.

This book should have never made it through a peer review process. It is hard to believe that the author was allowed to display so much opinion and mis-information. Refrences to geology in this text are inacurate and pose a matter of debate of the author's credibility.

This book lacks any new science. The author's "tangents" into other aspects of geology are often inacurate and misleading to students of any level. The author's claims of science and discovery are eccentric and very odd to read. This book needed a more detailed peer review process.

This book could benefit from a rigorous peer review. Complex theory is over-simplified and misleading inferences are made on seemingly every other page. The typographical errors were fustrating.

While the content of this book seems to be up to par, I am very disppointed with the quality. At something like $135, it should be a bulletproof hardcover book. Instead it is a cheap paperback that started to fall apart at the first use. Now, as I progress through the book, each new page falls out like the last. I am very upset because I like to add my textbooks to a lifelong collection. The publisher should be ashamed of this book. Amazon should do something about it.

Book shows minimal content, when detailed descriptions are needed
NO ANSWERS TO PROBLEMS IN BACK OF BOOK
PAPER BACK, that is a rip off to all engineering students.

Used this book for a graduate level class on mechanics of materials. I found that it was ok, but very concise and hard to understand at times. I was usually able to figure out solutions to the problems from reading the chapters but I really had to dig. Definatly could have been better written but a good professor will make up for the deficiencies of the text.

This book is perhaps the only text book in the market which deals with this particular subject. This is perhaps the only reason why the book is still being sold. The book is very difficult to understand. The language is often cryptic and the most critical mathematical steps are ommitted during derivations which makes this book practically useless. However, if you are already familiar with the principles of Advanced Solid Mechanics, you may find this book relatively useful. Until someone writes a better book, I guess we are stuck with this.

As a university professor, I chose this book for a graduate course because it seemed to cover the same topics that I wanted to cover.

Unfortunately, after using it for a semester, I've found that the book always skips the key steps in a derivation. Often, it is only evident to the reader that steps have been skipped from the cryptic language used by the authors: "Using equilibrium and compatibility, the following expression results". Very important information is left out.

The book is so short on detail that it would be better if the authors simply published a stack of formulas.

The book is just a pile-up of diagrams trying to remind you of the Statistics class that you took in college. The writing is very boring, with little self-proclaimed insight. Nothing that you have not already heard of.

If you go to UC Irvine, think twice before you take this guy's class.

Although it is a bit strange that he has a story in the middle of the book describing a future political scenario in the world of 24/7 markets, Haugen makes a compelling case for the creation of volatility via the market itself, and not exogenous forces. The reviews above seem to be missing the point a bit. You may feel a bit cheated if you expect all academic writing and come across the story. I think that's what happened above.

Either way, CURSE THAT BRIGHTON BELLOW!

A total waste of money. It is just a pile-up of diagrams that remind you of your Statistics class in college. The writing is incoherent, boring and plain terrible. In the book, there are repeated mockings of college professors which is real dumb. Ironically, Haugen himself is a professor. Hey, I would not take this guy's class.

I serious question the indepence of the two readers that gave the book a 5-star. Are they related in any way to Robert Haugen?

I feel like Graham Chapman's colonel who interrupts a scene and announces, "Stop it! Stop it! This skit has gotten much too silly!"

The Beast is embarrassingly silly. The lit review is fairly well-done, albeit brief and biased. One of Haugen's arugements is that risk disappears when firms use less equity and more debt financing, implying that stock markets are wildly overreactive and excessively volatile. But Haugen ignores the fact that as debt piles up it takes on more of the risk characteristics of equity. So risk does not disappear, it is merely transferred to debt. Haugen also emphasizes that risk is insideous in that it increases the required rate of return that corporations must meet. However, in another book of his, he points out that risk (beta) explains NOTHING about returns. Risk matters in this book. Investors ignore risk in THE NEW FINANCE. Which one is it?

But folks, this sad little book is not all finance. About 90 pages are devoted to a poorly written disutopian short story, pitting a scrappy campaign manager against an investment banking juggernaut. Terrible. Stupid plot. Ridiculous characters. Dialogue that only Ed Wood could love. In one part of the book a group of Ph.D. "efficient market police" scare a snivelling faculty member away from telling the public how dangerous that stock financing really is (as if investors need a Columbia professor to tell them that). Well, the thought police aren't here quite yet. Tenure-track profs are under pressure to get stuff out. All those geeks spinning stock data and crunching numbers are doing it to find interesting results. If they find them-and they didn't cheat to manufacture the numbers-they get published. Period. Hedge funds, wealthy investors and fund managers are trying to take not-so-random walks down high-tech paths trying to gain modest extra returns. How does Haugen explain the cascade of investments books technical analysis, investing the Buffet way, etc., that rely on non-efficient markets?

Bottom line: If you buy this book you deserve to have your money lost. You probably would have blown it on something just as stupid. I myself wish I used my money to buy lotto tickets. So, by all means get it over with...buy this book!

Haugen's book is pretty good in some parts -- and really bad in others. The efficient markets hypothesis of finance does not hold up if it is interpreted as the joint hypothesis that stocks (and other financial assets) are valued on a discounted dividends (or cash flow or earnings) basis and that prices reflect all relevant information. But if the first part of this proposition fails, the second may still hold. Haugen doesn't seem to realize this, while his conclusions -- giving the subtitle -- rely on the jointness of the hypoothesis strongly. Furthermore, to conclude that since the conditions for a particular derivation fail, the conclusion fails is simply wrong in logic, and that is exactly what Haugen is arguing. The review in not very technical terms of several places where strong "anomalies" make one doubt efficient-market valuation is well done. The analysis of the problems with the market and their consequences is fatuously bad. Instead of giving a coherent argument -- preferably one backed with some research results -- Haugen produces a pathetically silly fantasy tale, and some unsubstantiated conclusions. The bad unfortunately outweighs the good; this book is better avoided!