F Books

These are the unconventional investment ideas that I found this book very unique:

1. Portfolio rebalancing means unintended bet against the market.

2. Presented the portfolio risk not as standard deviation of return, but versus that of market portfolio.

3. Hierarchical approach of investment (asset allocation first then investment selection) is not a good idea. Reason being: 1. Asset allocation likely assuming zero cost index fund as a guide. 2. Assuming each fund can fit into single asset class. 3. Asset allocation is paramount to investment selection regardless of the quality of investment selection. 4. Approach frequently ends up with actively managed and high fee fund.

4. Alternative investment not necessarily a good diversification due to risk and cost.

5. Financial Engines does not put funds into rigid asset class categories but rather use techniques to create a weighted peer group of funds based on how close the investment style (risk relative to market portfolio) is to the fund in question, and then rank funds on various measures (expenses, fund-specific risk, performance, turnover).

Overall, the book is very enlightening to both novice and professional investors without digging into complicated mathematics!

Chris Jones covers all the bases related to investment choices based upon what's best for the personal investor rather than the financial advisor. Great examples, clear concise terminology, a perfect book for anyone interested in well grounded wealth accummulation over glitz!

We have used Financial Engines for tracking and planning since the initial article about it in Wall Street Journal many years ago. This book explains very clearly about how their data-based system actually works and the statistical information they use to make their recommendations. Very clear writing style and easy to read in several gulps. I have bought extra copies for my kids to use.

This book does a number of things well.

1) it offers a great overview of the basics of personal investing (historical and future market performance factors, the roles of risk attitudes and time horizon when determining one's asset allocation, the value of diversification, tax issues, etc.)

2) it shows, mathematically, the perils of individual stock picking, and the negative impact this will likely have on your portfolio

3) most importantly, in my view, is the detailed examination of how and why a passive indexed approach will likely beat an active managed approach, unless the managers get lucky. No wonder John Bogle likes this book!

The book is heavy on concepts and examples, light on tough math. Not a super-light read, but far from a technical manual. Good for most readers, I would think.

In conclusion, if you implement what this author suggests, you can't go wrong.

This book was well written and easy to read.

The author makes the case that we would need about 1500 years of stock market return data to be able to predict stock market returns within +/- 1% with high confidence. Since we only have about 100 years of reliable data, we can predict within +/- 4% of the long term historical average. Over long 25 year time periods, stock market returns can vary by a factor of 6X or 6 times.

The author discusses the current world asset allocation of about 63:37 stocks:bonds. Interestingly enough, this is not far from the age old pension plan asset allocation of 60:40. The ratio of U.S. to foreign stocks is also about 60:40.

This author has a different opinion about periodically rebalancing a portfolio. He says rebalancing is really a market timing bet.........because you are betting against the consensus of market participants when the market asset allocation changes. He recommends rebalancing to changes in the over-all market allocation versus to a fixed stock:bond asset allocation ratio.

While conducting research for Financial Engines, they found that investors preferred having risk expressed in dollars versus percentages or sigma.

The author correctly focuses on using funds with low expenses, and he says most mutual funds have total expenses over 2% per year. He recommends adjusting your asset allocation around low expense funds...........if you are in a 401K with very limited choices. His work suggests that not investing in an asset class only costs you about 0.5% in return. If it costs you more than 1% in additional fees to get into a new asset class, then skip this asset class.

The author suggests having a maximum of 10% invested in REITs. He argues that if you own your home, you probably have no need for REITs as a separate investment.

The author also argues that commodities have a 0% expected return, so skip this asset class.

Over-all, this book is easy to read with very sound advice for investors.


Index Mutual Funds: How to Simplify Your Financial Life and Beat the Pro's
The Richest Man in Babylon
Bogle on Mutual Funds: New Perspectives for the Intelligent Investor
The Millionaire Next Door
The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio
A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing, Ninth Edition
The Coffeehouse Investor: How to Build Wealth, Ignore Wall Street, and Get On With Your Life
The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing

Sparse language in a surreal world. This book will make you ponder about what is real, what is perceived and what is in-between.

I discovered this book in the library. I read the first few pages and was captivated. Christopher Priest will introduce you to an impossible world - and make you believe it.

Years later, the book was out of print. I searched the internet to find a copy. When I got it, the book did not let me down, though I already knew its secrets.

Probably the finest sci-fi book I have ever read.

Hey you guys that loved Ringworld, Dragon's Egg or A Mission of Gravity, you will be HOOKED by this one! A REALLY original alternative world, VERY nicely hidden under a bulk of myth and a secretive guild system. Sociology - B+; Mathematics - A; Physics - B. The ending is the only minor flaw, but after all the real thinking starts after reading...

I was looking for The Glamour and noticed unfortunately that most of Priest's books are out of print...how sad, as most are truly original. I then noted that The Inverted World had only been reviewed 4 times and wanted to add my thoughts. READ IT. YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED!

Imagine an encapsulated city trying to survive in a strange world where mysterious "optimum" is moving and the city has to keep moving on it's tracks trying to reach it. Every natural obstacle in this unfriendly environment has to be solved and the city has to keep moving or else... People in the city refer to the landscapes ahead as "the future" and to the landscapes behind as "the past." Everybody is working hard, for the optimum must be followed at any price... Is the ending of the book (which is one of the best endings in SF) going to reveal the real truth? What is the real truth anyway? The one you perceive? Or the other one, the one you can't see...

As a new small business owner, I was given this book by a friend who told me that there were valuable lessons inside that might help develop my own firm. I thanked them and put the book aside, intending to read it at a later date when the hectic days of building my business were passed. One late night, after another long day I collapsed into bed and having this on my bedside table, thought I would pick it up and read a chapter to get a feel for it.

That night I stayed up until 4 am reading, and completed the book later the next day. I realized immediately that the lessons in this book were immensely valuable to me as my start-up business grew and how fortunate I was to read the practical lessons the book offers while I was still in a position to develop the culture and methodology of my firm. Ultimately, I was able to save countless hours of wasted effort and incorporate future business planning via the lessons learned in this book.

The authors use a combination of practical knowledge and experience to bring the running of your business to the forefront of the discussion. Mr Wilk and Dr McGuire present short chapters in which advice about such basic elements as accounting, customer service, dealing with employees and keeping them happy are uniquely addressed. The result is an incredibly easy and enjoyable read. Forget the long business case studies from Harvard, what a new business owner needs is practical advice delivered in an easy-to-understand format. In this regard, the authors have excelled and the result is a book that may be read cover-to-cover or just picked up and perused.

The authors hail from Maine, where folks are known for getting to the point and not using ten works when two will suffice. Perhaps this is one the most unique and enjoyable aspects of this book is that it is devoid of pretentiousness without being overtly "folksy." The bottom line is the authors are two people like most business owners: they have begun start-ups in small town America with their own collateral, hard-work and commitment as the backbone of their ventures. If you are a small business owner like me, ask yourself this: "who is more likely to understand the lessons you must go through to turn your dream into a successful business? A Harvard Business School Student writing a book for his thesis, or a lawyer and a doctor from a regular American town who have started their own businesses, learned the lessons the hard way, and are there to share their experiences in a practical and humorous way?"

I'm not sure this book could have been written by anyone outside of Maine. Probably nowhere else in the United States will you find people who combine such a strong, practical, work ethic with such a dry sense of humor. This book was never boring, always funny, relevant and interspersed with practical examples.

This year our business will approach billings of $750,000. This is rapid growth for a firm under six months old. Along the way we have had to sort our accountancy issues, hire employees, allocate resources and develop and then re-define our business plan. I estimate that the time, lessons, and examples found within this book have contributed to a savings of over $65,000. It's little wonder that I've bought copies of this superb work and given it to friend and associates who own their own businesses.

This could be the best investment you ever make in your growing business...

As a teacher and non-profit manager, I found "It's Your Business" to be a useful resource in my work. The book reinforced the notion that attending to the needs of my "internal customers" - my students and employees - is as critical to the success of my classroom and business as attending to the needs of my "external customers" - parents, school administrators, and the recipients of my non-profit organization's services. At the core of Marty Wilk's and Peter McGuire's practical and accessible volume is genuine respect for business enterprise and heartfelt optimism about what can be achieved for the good of the business, employee, community, and environment when their common sense recommendations are applied. Readers need not hold an MBA to understand and benefit from "It's Your Business"; rather, they need only the willingness to examine their own business (or teaching) practices through the customer-service focused lens of these knowledgable authors who constructively point the way to a business's deep and lasting success.

This book is among the "Best of Breed" business books I've encountered, and I've studied many business books. As a CPA and business owner, I found the advice practical, actionable and you don't need a Harvard MBA to understand and act on it. The authors bring real life relevant business experience in a format that is easily understandable and is immediately applicable. The book can be read cover to cover, but its handbook format allows the reader to pick a topic that is of immediate interest, dive in, learn or reinforce best practices and move on.

This is a well written book replete with advice for any business wishing to create customer loyalty. The real world examples provide valuable lessons for creating a customer focused environment in businesses of any size.

A very user-friendly guide to help anyone with customers: corporate businesses, phyisician offices, academic settings, etc. The real world examples made it easy to relate to. I come from a business and academic background and I plan to put the tools to work!

I really liked this book of the way it is written for easy understanding and examples. Also the author is very helpful in adding more insights into the various topics and even to the extent of communicating with one on one. I really recommend this book to any programmer.

Excellent book - does not waste words and full of useful code examples.

I found the book a must have when you begin with CVI. It should be on your shelf right above your PC while you are on your 5th can of coke digging in code at 3 am. I was very pleased that the author responded back to my tech e_mail. He is a class guy. Thank you, Mr. Khalid

This is a really good book for someone who is starting out using Labwindows CVI. I had a little knowledge of C but the book really did a good job of filling in the blanks and refreshing my memory. After only reading the first few chapters I was programing great user interfaces over the GPIB. I have already recommended this book to a number of fellow students.

This is truly an excellent book; a real must for any LabWindows/CVI beginner.

Each section uses well thought out examples to demonstrate the features and libraries available to the programmer. The topic areas covered in this book ensure that the user can quickly generate code that will produce professional looking solutions for any application. The GPIB and RS232 tutorials are superb, providing essential background information in both these crucial areas.

A real must for any CVI developer!

For many Christians, recitation of the Apostles' Creed is a rote part of Sunday morning's liturgy. And most worshipers more than likely routinely repeat phrases they've repeated Sunday after Sunday without giving much or any thought to what they're saying. "Resurrection of the dead" I suspect is one of those affirmations that roll politely off the tongue while conveniently by-passing the gray matter. My hunch is that people assume they're making a belief statement about the resurrection of Jesus not their own physical, corporeal resurrection.

Segal's book picks up where Oscar Cullman left off and goes into exhaustive and fascinating detail as to how the idea of an afterlife came to be in the Western world. Cullman's little book (Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead) is must reading. In less than a hundred pages, Cullman details the differences between the pagan notion of an immortal soul and the Jewish/Christian belief in the resurrection of the dead--real bodies being raised in the last days. Life After Death begins with those same pagans and then offers an extremely well-documented history of various religion's views of the afterlife. This is not an afternoon read.

What I found most fascinating about Segal's book was the way he demonstrated the connection between the different philosophical ideas and the religious belief system(s) that inherited or appropriated its predecessor. One must make a leap of faith at times with his connections (no proof can be made that an early Christian said, "Plato's Phaedra makes sense to me!"), but the bridges he makes are convincing and cited with care. Gnosticism is but one compelling example of such a connection.

Apart from the historical aspect, one may ask, "So what? What difference does it make?" American Christians' bias against Muslims viz. martyrdom is one case in point. It is assumed (by our prejudice) that martyrs do what they do to inherit afterlife in Paradise. And that very well may be the case, and Segal does a fine job of looking at the nuances of Islamic interpretation of holy text. But recall Marx blasted Christianity as the opiate of the masses and Woody Guthrie criticized Christians for desiring the "pie in the sky by and by" because these beliefs can lead to self-righteousness, ignoring of social issues, and the Christian version of holy war (Crusades, Manifest destiny, Iraq).

Expect to be enlightened and amazed with this book. I cannot recommend it strongly enough for any thoughtful Christian, one who adheres to the dictum that spiritual growth is "faith seeking understanding."

Alan F. Segal's book "Life After Death" is my first read of his work, and certainly the most massive book I have read in some time. Considering the sheer scope of the topic Segal has attempted to cover, the size of the book should come as no surprise. However, the physical weight is where the "weightiness" ends.

Now, before you freak out about over 700 pages of text on life after death, it should be emphasised that Segal writes in a very accessible and easy going manner. A few of the words he uses require a dictionary, (at least, I needed one), but the incidence of this was not a burden. Segal keeps you moving and presents a great level of quotation from ancient sources to highlight his points. His manner and style of presentation and discussion are absolutely fantastic.

Segal presents the beliefs of different cultures from a more social viewpoint than anything, and deals with how these beliefs can illustrate what the people thought of about themselves and the world about them. What you end up with is a very interesting discussion not just on life after death, but also some of the political, cultural and social concerns that went into them. This makes for a very well-rounded discussion.

Segal takes you through various cultures and civilisations, and throughout he inter-connects various ideas between them to show how they illustrate each other by contrast or simularity. These cultures include chapters on Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and Canaan, Israelite, (broken into various chapters), and much more, including detailed chapters on Christian views and their development through the centuries.

This book is really a great overview of the topic, and it is relatively easy to find from Segal's referencing further material for more specific reading. Segal has done exceptionally well to squeeze such a vast topic into about 750 well-written and dynamic pages.

This book gets a big "thumbs-up" from me. I will certainly be reading more of Segal's work in the future.

First, I must admit that I'm not totally impartial due to the fact that I have come to consider Dr. Segal a great mentor. Nevertheless, it can be said with absolute certainty that his treatment of the subject is very full-bodied and complete.

Moreover, you should not be intimidated by the book's length. For by connecting the subject to his personal life and contemporary issues, he keeps you interested throughout the long and fascinating journey.

If you're like me, you'll be both moved and amazed by what you've learned.

Professor Segal's book is a must read for anyone interested in tracing the development of thinking concerning post-mortem existence. Segal's approach is well-researched, and he makes conections across the centuries and cultures that might otherwise go unnoticed. His grasp of the bredth of the material concerning western society's beliefs of life after death is breathtaking.

The author attempts to explain an oxymoron - Life After Death. He does so elegantly, enlightening and entertaining along the way. It may shock those who think we've always held the beliefs we now hold and that these beliefs arrived fully developed without undergoing all the development associated with such ideas. The author is authoritative and sympathetic as we wind through the ages, civilization upon end, rewriting not only the rules but also the game.

Starting with the unchanging Egyptians one discovers that they indeed changed their beliefs about life after death, not once but several times. Then the citizens of Ur take center stage. On and on we move, ancient Persia, Greece and finally the dawn of our modern Western ideas, Israel. It is difficult to call one view more "sophisticated" than another due to the transmission and borrowing of ideas between cultures. Each new encounter led to another modification.

The primary question had to be decided..."Is there life after death?" Most cultures concluded that "something" existed beyond death. (Oddly, the Old Testament is silent on the subject.) They were unsure where it was or what occurred. Religious leaders and rulers were included (of course) then a new idea of titantic import emerged, one that affects us to this day: All who lead "good lives" (honored rulers and gods, obeyed social rules) are eligible for eternal bliss. Its corollarly - bad people get punished - was a natural development.

Our ideas of an afterlife had evolved from a dark existence to a an opulent physical place to a democratic mystical union with Christ in "heaven". The idea of resurrection muddied the waters but stopped debate on the subject. Christianity substituted "being in Christ" for a physical place while Islam's version promises sensuousness and pleasure for ever. A well-researched and well-written book - get it today.

Captures the heart and soul of these guys and the political crap they endure with their administration weasels...Bob :)

I have read a lot of military books that cover infantry and Spec-Ops but I have found few that deal with the in and outs of a city level police SWAT team. I found the book to be exciting to read and interesting to see the inner workings of a SWAT team. I liked the team spirit portrayed as well as the day to day politics of every day police work. In this day and age risk of street level terrorism, has thrown the local police SWAT team from a necessary evil that police administrators hate to have, to a front line defense that is truly needed and wanted by every citizen and every level of law enforcement. I am hoping that Jon Skaehill is going to pleasure us with another book soon! A MUST READ.

The author uses his real world experience as a SWAT Operator and Patrol Supervisor to accurately depict the life of a SWAT team in a mid-size city police department. This book is packed with action and drama. It shows the good and bad of departmental politics and delves into the dangerous world of tactical operations.

I LOVED IT!

The Lion's Den is a well written book that steadily improves in its readability throughout the story. Mr. Skaehill's knowledge of police department politics, the criminal element of our society, and modern SWAT team operations is both apparent and interesting. The book provides, not only a solid story line with good characters that are interesting and believable, but also a unique look into the professional hazards faced by police officers in a midsize to large sized police department.

Hopefully, Mr. Skaehill will continue to develop these characters and provide more insight into police/SWAT operations with future books. It would also be interesting to hear from this author in stories written from the prospective of a Patrol Sgt., a Detective, or even an Internal Affairs Investigator.

A Cop

Sgt. Skaehill proves that he knows his business. The "Lion" roams about, seeking whom he may devour....Jon Skaehill has assaulted the lion's lair, and continues to do so to this day. I believe it was George Orwell who said "People can sleep soundly in their beds at night only because of rough men who are willing to do violence on their part." Jon Skaehill is one of these men to whom we owe our peace and tranquility. He takes you into the lion's den as only one can when he's actually tasked to do it himself. Skaehill takes you to a place that few ever see. May I quote again? Blaise Pascal said, "Law...without force...is impotent."
The characters are well developed, and one can't help but "get to know them", as the book progresses. Not only does Skaehill score center-mass hits in his depiction of SWAT training and operations. He also realistically nails the petty internal politics of a Police Department's few "rear eschelon bean counters". The book's accounts of SWAT raids are indeed riveting--most especially the last third of the book. I look forward to his next work.
Sgt. Skaehill has "BTDT", and it shows....

Almost cinematic in design and construction, truly, "The Magic of M.C. Escher" is a breakthrough book on the works of this artist. Every page is filled with inspiration and surprise. Designed by a gifted art director named Erik The' and produced by Andreas Landshoff, this book flows together to form a loving catalogue of Mr. Escher's visions. It is unlike other books based on Escher which tend to be either tutorial or biographical in nature. Whereas these past books, more or less, deconstruct and analyze his works mainly through words, "The Magic of M.C. Escher" successfully accomplishes this through the images themselves, revelling in their sheer beauty, from his preliminary studies all the way to the finished prints. There are many double foldout pages to better impact Escher's mastery of his craft. Some of the pages are filled, corner to corner, with extremely detailed, magnified sections of specific works that allow the reader to closely experience what it's like to be "nose to nose" with the actual prints.

This book catapults the reader into Escher's world immediately. Before you even open the title page, you discover that the inside of the dust cover reproduces, in full color, of course, "Metamorphosis III" in three horizontal panels each measuring an astounding 39" across. This book brings us along on a visual journey ajoined by Escher's own words, as if he is personally giving us insights on a guided tour of his works. It thoughtfully limits itself to short excerpts from Escher's lectures and letters whose sole purpose is to compliment glorious, detailed photographs of original work. It's filled with Escher's never-before published pencil studies and sketches, extreme closeups of his prints, and detailed photographs of his original carved wood blocks. The pencil studies from his notebooks allow us to follow his thought processes and fully appreciate the endless hours he joyfully and dutifully spent on formulating the precise combination of graphic elements to arrive at his finished images.

The book makes side-by-side visual comparisons of earlier works that inspired Escher to create more self-satisfying images that better convey his "relative division of the plane" and other spacial concepts. Most of its visual content were supplied by two sources: The M.C.Escher Foundation and Michael Sachs, a private collector and print dealer from Connecticut.

Overall, this is book is a stunning, loving homage to this master of printmaking and genius to the graphic arts. Nothing is spared in this book's construction and design. If the adage is true that a picture is worth a thousand words, "The Magic of M.C.Escher" could fill a library.

Wonderful coffee-table book of Escher's best drawing illusions. Even the jackets is two-sided and imaginatively done with style.

High-quality reproductions of the amazing artworks. Minimalistic style of comments and excerpts from artist's letters gives you a focus on subtle details and motives, and lets images tell you the rest.

Given as a gift by a special friend of mine, the book has always adorned the coffee table in the living room as a centerpiece that never fails to attract the attention of both art lovers and art dabblers alike. Perhaps it could be said that my interest in the two seemingly disparate field of mathematics and art motivated that friend of mine to purchase the book, as Escher himself apparently believed and proved that those two seemingly unrelated fields could be beautifully synthesized in a brilliant fusion of creativity. The result is more than convincing.

Escher was a Dutch wanna-be mathematician, who expressed himself through incredibly intricate, creative works of art. This book contains hundreds of his drawing as well as his notebook sketches, which is interesting to look at because you get to see how he developed his drawings. Accompanying most of the pictures in this book are excerpts of letters that he wrote to various people. If you want a book on Escher's work, then this is the one to buy! Fantastic.

A very thoroughly written book. I found some information on all-flying tails that I haven't found any where else. However, Dr. Phillips uses nomenclature that are not what I call traditional nomenclature. Not really a big problem, just different from what I'm use to.

"Mechanics of Flight" will become a classic in the aerodynamicist's library alongside Abbott and Von Doenhoff's "Theory of Wing Sections". Here's why:

* Coverage of topics in aircraft design is exhaustive. From balancing lift and weight for steady flight, on through off axis forces and moments from running propellers, to 6-dof formulas for aircraft dynamic modes, to how propeller location affects aircraft stability, and on and on. Great for both the beginner and the authority in aircraft.

* Often a completely thorough analysis including the minutest effects is presented along with a linearized or simplified method. The simplified analysis is so useful for rapid conceptual design and study of fundamentals, while the detailed analysis gives a complete grasp of the physics and phenomena involved. Plus, in simplifying a complex derivation, the reader is shown which parameters may be safely neglected and which require careful scrutiny, and what is engineering if not intelligently ignoring smaller effects to come up with a reasonable solution to a problem?

* The figures! Well thought out and consistent, the figures clearly illustrate the material.

* Actual aircraft data is used in the example and homework problems. I have a feel for the performance of several classes of aircraft simply from using this book.

* Phillips derives everything, and I mean everything using the fundamental laws of physics as the starting point. A student would be very well served to go through these derivations themselves. Phillips basically shows the student how to learn and how to think mathematically. No shortcuts here. I wish I had learned these things very early on in my own schooling.

* Phillips has included experimental data along with rigorous analytical derivation and computer numerical analysis. I believe that all three are necessary for a true understanding of fluid dynamics.

The bottom line: Buy and use this book! While it is true that the material is focused on subsonic flight, I work for a large airframer of supersonic aircraft and I find the principles and fundamentals to be extremely useful in my work. Whether you are a student or a professional, if you have an interest in aerodynamics this is THE book to use.

This book lays out the concepts of aircraft performance and simulation in an exceptionally clear and easy to follow format. There is no wondering how the concepts in each chapter fit together and how they apply to aircraft design or analysis.

The formulations for aircraft performance are very robust and provide the reader/student with the formulation of each equation from basic priciples in an easy to understand style.

A highlight of the book are the chapters on flight simulation and dynamic stability. The methods presented for 6-dof dynamic stability and quaternion based flight simulation are clearly explained and the examples provided walk the reader through the process of implementing them. These methods are also faster and more accurate than similar methods I have seen used here at NAVAIR, and implement them every time I can into older codes.

This book covers every aspect of flight mechanics that the beginning and intermediate student needs to know and does not confuse the reader!!

This text provides unparalled detail in it's discussion of flight mechanics. It contains clear and concise derivations of underlying equations and has well planned figures and example problems. Subject matter includes static and dynamic stability, propulsion, lifting line theory, 6-dof flight simulation with quaternions, along with many other essential topics. I particularly appreciated the straightforward way in which Phillips applies numerical methods to solving many of the problems. The equations required are located in such a manner as to make it easy to find what you need. Though mainly geared toward subsonic flight, I have found the understanding gained through this book invaluable in the design of supersonic vehicles. This is a great book for students learning the subject for the first time and a must have for engineering professionals and aircraft enthusiasts.

I am an Aerospace engineer working for the Air Force. While attending the annual AIAA aerospace convention in Reno Nevada, I met a professor from Denmark who raved about the work and research of a professor local to the west, Phillips. This seasoned scholar from Denmark wouldn't miss a session if he found Phillips' name appearing in it. I picked up the "Mechanics of Flight" which was on display for the first time at that conference. Due to the mountain of topics covered (900+ pages) I can't say that I have read every line of that book but the material I studied was impressive. I've never seen such complete derivations right from F=MA. The explanations are meticulous and thorough. I coded a real-time 6-DOF flight simulator for a midsized RCAV using this book as the main reference. I've never seen such a straightforward explanation of Quaternion algebra. If there were a "bible" of flight mechanics and dynamics, I would certainly give this my vote over any other in its class.

What a great story that took me back to growing up...well written...great details that make the story all the more real and enjoyable! Hope there is another book following.....

Having come from a single parent family, I could really identify with the feelings Jackie was having. I think this is a must read for kids who struggle with being present and honest with themselves. I was awestruck with her courage to deal on life's terms. I'll be passing this book on to the many kids in my extended family.

Pat Schmatz has written a poignant and entertaining story of growing up and adjusting to difficult changes. Strong characterization and skillful plotting makes this book about an ordinary girl facing extraordinary circumstances a wonderful read. And you'll love Mrs. Estronsky!

Mrs. E is a deceptively simple and thoroughly engaging book. It is a well-written, interesting story that balances lighthearted and funny moments with meaningful family themes about single parenting, sibling relationships, the impact of divorce on adolescents and teens, and the life-changing potential of the teacher-student relationship. An inspiring, hopeful must-read for adolescent girls.

This book touched me. As an adult whose parents divorced when I was about the same age as Jackie, it took me back and allowed me to feel along with Jackie what I couldn't then. This is a must read for girls stuggling in adolesence and for women who have been there. It is exceptionally well written, easy to read and enjoyable. I highly recommend it to read and pass along.

I remember when I bought this book back in 1990. I still use it and keep it on my shelf as a book that will not go out of use. Every recipe you ever needed is here including those made with your cornstarch and baking soda. I like the book because it does not tell the child what to make; it simply offers the recipes and lets kids make what they want. Some of the illustrations give good ideas for what is possible to make, but it is low key and kids are encouraged to be creative in their own way. This book has the best playdough I've ever made -- an entire chapter of different playdoughs, but my favorite is on page 29. All you need is flour, salt, and water. My copy says this book received a "Best of the Best" rating from the American Library Association.

This book has clays and doughs made from every imaginable ingredient (dryer lint!!). It is not only thorough but the directions are clear and easy to follow. The book is arranged in a way that makes it easy to find the perfect recipe to meet your needs; cooked vs. non-cooked for example. I use it often for my preschool classroom.

"Preschoolers, art teachers, adventurous parents, and most anyone who likes to play in mud, peanut butter, playdough, papier-mache, and similar mediums will be ecstatic over Kohl's book. There are more than 100 recipes for dough, plaster, clay and other modeling mixtures that can be used for just plain fun or serious art."--ALA Booklist. Recipient of the 1990 Benjamin Franklin Award and the ALA Booklist Starred Review.

I guess this book has been around since the late 80's, but it's new to me! My kids and I are on #12 of the 30 playdough possibilities. Cinnamon Dough has been my daughter's favorite, while Shampoo Dough is my son's. I like plain old salt/flour playdough with color added. This book has all the recipies you will ever need for doughs, and other squishy modeling compounds. We haven't tried any plaster of Paris projects yet, but we will! I think we will try the one that you do at the beach -- making some kind of sand casting.

I have loved this book for a long time - TONS of great activities and kids really love getting squishy. The Peanut Butter Playdough recipe is worth it alone! Now I heard that Bright Ring Publishing is putting this book out in a Bilingual Spanish Edition! I can't wait to use it in the classroom! What a wonderful resource and bold move! Bravo! And thank you from all of my Spanish-speaking students! They will love to see projects in their own language!