Tutorials Books

I bought my copy of "JDBC Database Access with Java" in the fall of 1999. It's sitting next to me on my desk here at work as I write these words. The right side is choked with Postit page markers that get me back to my most frequently referenced pages quickly. The binding has finally worn out within a part of the DatabaseMetaData section - and some of the pages are loose there. I have relied on this book for the past seven years of Java SQL database programming like no other. That's not to say that I don't have others. I just don't use them. The organization and writing style of this book fits my needs perfectly. I happen to be here today to check to see whether there has been an update to this wonderful reference. Nope. Apparently they got it right the first time back in 1997.

If you're looking for a reference book that will enable you to expand your Java capability to JDBC (or to expand your JDBC capability to using all of it) - this is the one. Not too terse. Not too wordy. It covers everything from initial access to database reflection. It has just enough examples to show you how to use JDBC without over-burdening you with code. The index is terrific for quick lookups. Postit notes stick reliably to the pages for many years. A real gem.

sas

This book is well-written and has examples on using the SQL select, insert, delete and update commands. In addition, the topics on metadata is thorough. This is the best of the bunch, you won't be disappointed. It covers everything about database transactions - stored procedures, rollbacks and more.

Excellent book for starters in either Java/DB. Can be used by expert prorammers to write their own APIs. My favorite in this book is metadata explanation. A must reference for everyone whose working with JAVA/JDBC.

I am an experienced Java programmer who bought this book in the middle of implementing a JDBC based application. After staring at the opaque JDBC documentation from Sun, I hoped to find in this book an in depth examination of design and performance issues. The examples here do not go very far. My feeling is that this book covers the subject adequately, but in the end it is not a very complex subject. The hard issues are often implementation specific, and I suppose an in depth look at the details of conformance and performance is not really possible in a book format (e.g. which databases require that resultsets read every column and only once). Now I wish I had purchased a more general book with one good chapter on JDBC, though I do appreciate the reference section in the back and still refer to it.

This was exactly what I was looking for in a tutorial for painting people. The reader does need to know some fundamentals in watercolor though. Its well planed and explained. My work has improved 10 fold because of it.

Thought this was a wonderful book. Just what I was looking for ie. impressionistic images of figures in watercolour. The demos are clear and easy to follow. Her paintings are full of light and she sets everything out very clearly. More helpful than a DVD. Highly recommended.

After years of avoiding attempting to paint figures, I am now able to put people into my paintings successfully. Laurels book is beautifully written and well laid out, which makes it easy to use. She manages to communicate the techniques and instill confidence, so a big thank you!

This book is mainly about watercolor painting. There is a lot of focus on how to simplify the complex, and determining values. It is an absolutely wonderful book to develop skills at value sketches and seeing the light and shadows. It is filled to the brim with valuable information, and it is also filled with stunning artwork by the author.
The teaching style and organization of the material taught is great.

The author/ artist has a talent for simplifying complex information. She also teaches the reader/ student artist how to take a complex scene that you want to paint and learn the methods of simplifying it. Some of this simplicity is based on exercises of being trained to see light and shadow and values. It is a unique book--I highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning to paint. It is not a basic beginner's how-to book, but can be very helpful to all levels of painters--especially in developing better skills at value sketches, and emphasizing light and shadow in your work.

The author's artwork is very inspiring. Her demonstrations are very clear and well-organized. The exercises are exceptionally well-taught, with illustrations that help you understand easily. She teaches you how to take black and white photos of a scene and make value sketches and interpret the light and shadow. The author explains that "figures are patterns of light and shadow". She demonstrates how this light and shadow is then used to put people in paintings, find a center of focus, set mood with color schemes, triads for fleshtones, etc..

I love the author's methods of explaining the painting process: An example is:
A demonstration on watercolor washes are taught in a simplified way called "watercolor laundry method"--basically, as in household laundry, learning to separate lights and darks, (i.e. painting lights first, letting it dry (hairdryer), then doing the darks. She then demonstrates how a series of washes over each other builds up the shadows and creates light.

This book definitely deserves 5 stars--it is one of the best watercolor teaching books that I own! It simplifies the difficult.

This book is written by a professional portrait painter. She is fabulous in her approach to watercolor portraits but I believe not that helpful to the beginner like myself. The hardest thing to do is to put figures into a landscape or seascape and this book has the information but assumes you are comfortable painting faces and figures in the first place.
Should you already feel comfortable drawing and painting faces and figures, by all means buy this book.
The beginner should look elsewhere to realizing the concept and instruction of figure placement.
There are many videos on the market like Don Andrews - "Painting Figurs in the Landscape" - and Tony Van Hasselt - "Fun with Figures" -that do the job for tyros like us.

Hmmm. When I bought this book, I thought it would have been more extensive and give more examples even though it's a relatively big book already. It's similar to the SW Help that comes with the software, but in a handy book form for reference. Still, there is no substitute for the tutorial books that Solidworks produces ( if you can find them on ebay or elsewhere ) or afford to take a SW class.

I purchased this reference book a few weeks ago. This is the second book that I purchased for these authors. I've been using SolidWorks for approximately three months. Before SolidWorks, I was using Pro/E for three long and dreadful years.

The book is a gem. It is a great reference book targeted towards the beginner to intermediate user. It provides a wealth of information on sketching; 2D and 3D, standard and advance features, drawings, assemblies, and more.

After each feature or tool, the author provides an illustration of the PropertyManager, and a tutorial to practice what you learned. The enclosed CD provides the initial and final models for all of the tutorials. This is a great book for anyone that is looking to learn, explore, and try new features and options.

Informative and easy to follow. Still, there are some fields which could be better covered.

This is a great SolidWorks Reference book. The text is clear and very easy to follow. Illustrations are provided for key PropertyManagers with standard and advance options addressed. Over 200 embedded tutorials are supplied on an enclosed CD which provides sample problems in each section and category. The CD provides the before and after models. The tutorials are great if you just want to address and explore the options in a quick and efficient manner. If you are just learning SolidWorks, I would recommend the Planchard's Engineering Design with SolidWorks book first. The Commands Guide is a must reference book to have at your desk when using SolidWorks.

New to Solidworks, I purchased the latest release of the "Professional" package in October 2006. I took a 12 Sat. course at a local community college to get a feel for the features and learn how to use this very powerful 3-D CAD software. The Planchard's have compiled an extremely detailed list of SW commands. The manual includes a CD disc containing many practical exercises that thoroughly illustrate the command application and its menu picks. The text is very clear and easy to understand - even for the novice, but the content is even useful for the experienced user. A "must-have" for any serious SW user's library.

This is probably one of the most outdated and misleading of the Arden editions. Nosworthy really doesn't like the play and dismisses it as an experiment leading up to _The Tempest_. Even his editing of the text is affected by his reading of the play. Only scholars who know something about Shakespeare should venture here.

A combination of "Romeo and Juliet," "Much Ado About Nothing," "As You Like It," and "King Lear?" Well somehow, Shakespeare made it work. Like "Romeo and Juliet" we have a protagonist (Imogen) who falls under her father's rages because she will not marry who he wants her to. Like "Much Ado About Nothing," we have a villain (Iachimo) who tries to convince a man (Posthumus) that the woman he loves is full of infidelity. Like "As You Like It," we have exiled people who praise life in the wilderness and a woman who disguises herself as a man to search for her family in the wilderness. Like "King Lear," we have a king who's rages and miscaculated judgement lead to disastorous consequences. What else is there? Only beautiful language, multiple plots, an evil queen who tries to undermind the king, an action filled war, suspense, a dream with visions of Pagan gods, and a beautiful scene of reconciliation at the end. While this is certainly one of Shakespeare's longer plays, it is well worth the time.

"Cymbeline" is my favourite Shakespeare play. It's also probably his loopiest. It has three plots, managing to drag in a banishment, a murder, a wicked queen, a moment of almost sheer pornography, a full-on battle between the Romans and the British, a spunky heroine, her jealous but not-really-all-that-bad husband, some fantastic poetry and Jupiter himself descending out of heaven on an eagle to tell the husband to pull his finger out and get looking for his wife. Finally, just when your head is spinning with all the cross-purposes and dangling resolutions, Shakespeare pulls it all together with shameless neatness and everybody lives happily ever after. Except for the wicked queen, and her son, who had his head cut off in Act 4.

"Cymbeline" is, then, completely nuts, but it manages also to be very moving. Quentin Tarantino once described his method as "placing genre characters in real-life situations" - Shakespeare pulls off the far more rewarding trick of placing realistic characters in genre situations. Kicking off with one of the most brazen bits of expository dialogue he ever created, not even bothering to give the two lords who have to explain the back story an ounce of personality, Shakespeare quickly recovers full control and races through his long, complex and deeply implausible narrative at a headlong pace. The play is outrageously theatrical, and yet intensely observed. Imogen's reaction on reading her husband's false accusation of her infidelity is a riveting mixture of hurt and anger; she goes through as much tragedy as a Juliet, yet is less inclined to buckle and snap under the pressure. When she wakes up next to a headless body that she believes to be her husband, her aria of grief is one of the finest WS ever wrote. No less impressive is her plucky determination to get on with her life, rather than follow her hubby into the grave.

Posthumus, the hubby in question, is made of less attractive stuff, but when he comes to believe that Imogen is dead, as he ordered (this play is full of people getting things wrong and suffering for it), he rejects his earlier jealousy and starts to redeem himself a tad. There's a vicious misogyny near the heart of this play, as Shakespeare biographer Park Honan observed, kept in balance by a hatred of violence against women. The oafish prince Cloten, who lusts after Imogen, is a truly repellent piece of work, without even the intelligence of Iago or the horrified panic of Macbeth; his plan to kill Posthumus and rape Imogen before her husband's body is just about as squalid and vindictive as we expect of this louse, and when a long-lost son of the king (don't even _ask_) lops Cloten's head off, there are cheers all round.

Shakespeare sends himself up all through "Cymbeline". I wonder if the almost ludicrously informative opening exposition scene isn't a bit of a gag on his part, but when a tired and angry Posthumus breaks into rhyming couplets, then catches himself and observes "You have put me into rhyme", we know that Shakespeare is having us on a little. Likewise, the final scene, when all is resolved, goes totally over the top in its piling-on "But-what-of-such-and-such?" and "My-Lord-I-forgot-to-mention" moments.

Yet the moments of terror and pity are deep enough to make the jokiness feel truly earned. When Imogen is laid to rest and her adoptive brothers recite "Fear no more the heat o' the sun" over her body, it's as affecting as any moment in the canon. That she isn't actually dead, we don't find out until a few moments later, but it's still a great moment.

Playful, confusing, enigmatic, funny and shot through with a frightening darkness, this is another top job by the Stratford boy. Well done.

Cymbeline was a British king in Roman times ( Augustus Caesar's time).
Devices used in the Play:
1) a woman plays a man/ boy role ( several of his plays : As You Like it,
Twelfth Night))
2) a deception by a villain to lie the virtue of a Lady ( Much Ado about
Nothing)
3) Princes kidnapped and brought up as common men ( I don't know if he
uses this in other plays)
4) poison that causes a coma ( Romeo and Juliet)
5) a Prince who is a vile fool ( used in his historical plays)
6) a Queen who is a plotter and evil ( Macbeth)
7) a Prince who kills another Prince and it redeemed by his hidden
identity
8) a Prince sentenced to hang by mistake
9) a King who condemns his daughter wrongly ( King Lear)
One wonders how much of this is historical fact and how much pure fiction.
With all this scheming in the plot , it should be a very successful
play.
It is a total flop!
What it comes out is seeming unreal and contrived.
You get that happy ending feel that is so much in his comedies
but it has a very false feeling to it.
That's probably why Cymbeline isn't performed much.
If he hadn't gone for all these at once it might have worked, but the
result is that you see the playwright as ....
If anyone wants to take the air out of a Shakespeare pedant,
this is the play to do it with! He makes Shaw and Eugene O'neil l
look good. He even make Rogers and Hammerstein and Gilbert and
Sullivan look better, ha, ha...
This play is not Shakespeare's finest hour!

Cymbeline is one of Shakespeare's least performed and least read plays. You do not stumble on it, you work your way through Shakespeare's opus and finally get there. The historical context is the war between Britain and the Roman Empire, and the action is hot and heavy, requiring five acts and twenty-seven scenes. Perhaps it is this complexity of plot that retarded Shakespeare's character development. Fewer lines have entered our lexicon from this play than most. Two exceptions are "the tongue is sharper than the sword," and to have "a bellyful of fighting." It is an excellent tragedy, however, combining elements of King Lear and elements of Othello. In its mystic elements it also resembles The Tempest.

The core of the plot is the bet between Posthumous, the king's son, and Iachimo, who wagers ten thousand ducats that he can seduce Posthumous' wife, Imogen. Posthumous, in turn, wagers a ring that Imogen has given him that Iachimo will not succeed. Initially, we amused by the idea, but upon further reflection, it is clear that the gambit cannot have a happy ending. Either the seduction is successful, breaking up the marriage, or it isn't, in which case Iachimo will certainly claim that he has secuced Imogen, simply to win the ring. In the process he sets himself the Iago-like task of converting love to hate.

The play is also full of classic Shakespearean gadgetry, including a potion that causes a trance resembling death, mystical soothsayers, the intervention of gods, women disguised as men, and a historical tableau which would have been familiar to Shakespeare's audience. It is a quintessential Shakespearean play, comprising nearly all of the classical elements of tragedy. If the plot could have been pruned, and the characters given more of the dimensionality that we expect from Shakespeare, Cymbeline would stand on a higher pedestal.

The Folger Shakespeare Library's annotated edition is excellent. It provides just the right notation on the page facing the text, and can be studied or ignored to suit the reader's purpose.

This tutorial on Bayesian data analysis is a gem: very terse, yet explaining the concepts very clearly, giving many insightful examples along the way. This is achieved within only 180 pages by focussing on understanding and intuition instead of mathematical formalism. After reading this tutorial, the reader will be familiar with the way of thinking in Bayesian statistics. The tutorial thus encourages the reader to get more independent from the (conceptually more complicated) cook book statistics with the associated risk of misusage. When reading this book I felt as if a whole jumble of more or less unconnected pieces of statistical wisdom was finally falling into place within the Bayesian framework.

A few critical remarks: (1) A clearer structure with more informative section and subsection headings would help to quicker find things and keep the material orderly in one`s mind. (As an example, the two core chapters are entitled „Parameter estimation I" and „Parameter estimation II"). (2) The chapter on non-paramteric estimation is much harder to understand than the first six chapters. This is in part justified by the advancedness of the topic but it could profit from a streamlining (and updating). (3) This book certainly would have the chance to become much more popular than it is now if it was more reasonably priced.

The reader should have a firm command of elementary probability theory, first year calculus (Taylor expansion, multidimensional integration, finding the maximum of a multi-variable function), as well as elementary linear algebra (diagonalization, eigenvectors, determinants). Ideally, she should be familiar with basic classical statistics, as this will make her appreciate the elegance of the Bayesian view more. Physicists will love this book.

This is an excellent tutorial for the both the beginner (undergraduate) and more advanced scientist. Sivia takes the reader through several examples with simple and concise explanations. I have used many of the examples discussed in the book as starting points for problems that I have encountered in my work. I would recommend giving it a try...

For years I listened to people present "Bayesian" solutions to problems without appreciating the subtler implications of the term. Bayes' theorem is one of the first topics taught in freshman-level probability and statistics. It's taught, and it's used, but it isn't a central part of the teaching of modern statistics.

Bayesians make it central. Sivia does a masterful job of deriving most of statistics from judicious applications of Bayes' theorem. He can do this, in part, because the visible universe is finite. Infinities and limit theorems can be bypassed, and previously impossible functional forms become workable.

The book is a tutorial; you have to think. But it's well worth it.

Maybe it's just me but I found this book not very helpful. The easy stuff is repeated often (Bayes's theorem is quoted every few pages) but when a difficulty arises it is glossed over. Maybe it gets better: I decided not to finish the book.

Sivia offers a brief but thorough explanation of how to use Bayesians in data analysis. He illustrates with important examples that commonly often arise in the sciences. As in estimating the true amplitude of a signal in the presence of background noise. These days, for anyone in a lab sitting next to an electronic gadget acquiring data, you can surely emphathise with this problem.

The necessary background for his book includes being familiar with multivariable calculus. Specifically, with the Taylor expansion in several variables, and with the Jacobian matrix of second partial derivatives. Plus of course a grounding in statistics, including maximum likelihood estimations and the normal distribution.

Top quality - which is what you would expect form Jinny Beyer. Top price - which you expect from her too. By time you buy the book, the CD and the tool you are out a bundle of cash that I would rather spend on fabric. But the 3 products compliment each other, the instructions are clear, the tool has the needed markings, the CD shows Ms Beyer in action. I'm slowly getting the hang of it and am pleased with the results. I just wish there was a package with all 3 (at a package price).

Jinny Beyer is the master of hand quilting. I find myself watching the videos over and over and over and over while I'm hand piecing. Are my hands just like hers? Where is her thimble pushing from? It's a great resource. Her book on hand piecing is also wonderful.

-Sarah

Iam extremely happy with this book, i have found it is so easy to read and it is very easy to understand what jinny beyer is trying to convey unlike a lot of quilting books.I was also very satisfied with the whole Amazon experience.As this was my first experience with internet shopping i was a bit nervous about the whole thing. Happily it was a great experience and hopefully the first of many.

I wanted to teach a class on piecing by hand and since I generally hand quilt but piece by machine I wanted to learn the real way it should be done. Of course this is the right book for learning the technique. Jinny Beyer is a master and really does an excellent job instructing in this book.

I loved this CD, I had purchased the book, which I also loved, and had taped a show where she demonstrated her technique on "Simply Quilts" which was very helpful also. But, with the CD you get to see everything Up Close, and she Demonstrates beautifully, No wonder she Teaches, and is referred to as the Master in Hand Quilting. At first, I fumbled, and felt extremely Awkward in holding the needle and fabric the way she did, but once I started to hold the eye end of my needle against the thimble like she does, with in 2 to 3 hours, I couldn't believe I ACTUALLY STARTED TO "HAND PIECE" JUST LIKE JINNY!! IT WAS LIKE IT "CLICKED" AND I WOULD NEVER, GO BACK TO THE SLOW AND UNEVEN WAY OF HAND PIECING AGAIN!! Also, for the reviewer, who couldn't find the Genesis Quilt Pattern, its right there under Genesis, with Templates and all. As well as all other 8 Lessons. But, I can't stress enough, as long as you keep the eye end of the needle against your thimble and hold the fabric taught at all times as your moving along between those 2 fingers like she demonstrates, you too will be piecing faster and faster, and more accurately! just like Jinny!! with in very little time!!

Good guide for begins only but it is a pretty book to have.

There are many books on watercolor techniques so why should you buy this one? You should buy this book because it an excellent reference book to help you learn the "nuts & bolts" of painting watercolors.As an example I refer to pages 44&45, "The Gradated Wash".Here artist Joe Garcia gives you a clear definition of the technique followed by very direct instructions and clear photos on how to proceed.He then gives you a tip at the end to get the best results.While this book seems at first glance to be more of an introduction to basic techniques more advanced artists will find this book to be very useful as a reference resource.The book like all North Light books is well designed with many photos and illustrations.When I first saw this book I figured do I really need this one? The answer is yes for the reasons I have mentioned.The author also explains his preference for materials and using watercolor boards which he makes himself. Now that it is available in a paperback edition there is no reason not to consider buying it.

This book is one of the best of its type. Instructions clear and detailed. By going through the exercises, you will be a better painter. This is a winner!! J. Drummond

Comprehensive guide to watercolor washes which includes an excellent range of examples, mostly of landscape subjects. Garcia is a very accurate detailed draftsman and some of the exercises can be challenging because of the detail rather than the actual technique. The book is well produced and a useful reference for the beginner and intermediate student.

A really good book for beginners with some good tips for more advanced watercolorists. A valuable additon to any watercolor library.

It's true that this particular item only contains chapters eight through thirteen, selected appendices, and accompanying solutions. I also have the single variable calculus book from Stewart, and I have to say that this is the best set of texts I have for learning calculus. There are very few errors, and the examples are very clear. The problems at the end of every section range in difficulty from easy to somewhat difficult, and with an accompanying solutions manual, you too can master calculus. :D

First off, I must say that before buying this book I had already taken a Multivariable Calculus class at a community college with the Larson Multivariable Calculus book. I didn't pass it with the grade that I wanted so I took it again at my current University. Although the larson book is very student friendly as an introduction, the Stewart Multivariable book was surprisingly well written. I had experienced other stewart books that were not well written for a student that is barely learning the material, but this one is. Many examples and problems in this book help you really understand what you are doing along with many good proofs that were lacking in the larson book. Along with the student solution manual, this book will teach you well the concepts of an already difficult subject.

My Harvard multivariable calculus class used this book and this book was quite helpful. It is quickly becoming a standard for non-rigorous, introductory multivariable calculus and rightly so.

This is one of the best introductory texts in multivariable calculus that I have seen in a long time. It was a required text and essentially, if you have this book, it is unnecessary to even go to class. All of the examples are clear and concise and combined with the excellent study guide, one can easily learn multivariable calculus from this book without even taking a course.

This really is an excellent presentation of multivarible calculus! The "but..." in the review title relates to two facts:

1. I bought the book new for $45 only a few weeks ago through Amazon and
2. The book is actually the last six chapters of Stewart's larger "Calculus : Concepts and Contexts" (2nd edition, I think - the one going for around $139). So, if you're hell-bent on buying this book at the $100 plus price, you'd be better of just getting the full version. More bang for your buck!

Anyway, I have quite a few calculus texbooks at various levels of sophistication and this one is quickly stealing my heart. I'm finding that Stewart's manner of presentation and the chosen examples, problems, solutions, and graphics, are all well designed toward the end that students actually understand the beautiful "concepts and context" that form the soul of this magnificent subject. For what it's worth, I've found it fairly easy to take this book's material and plug it into Mathematica to play and poke and mess around in order to get an even more intimate and graphical feel for it (though no Mathematica notebooks are actually provided with this textbook). A solutions manual by Don Clagg is available here at Amazon (which I haven't recieved yet) and there's also available a LabCalc series of resources for various math programs such as Mathematica and Maple that are built specifically for this textbook.

OK - have fun, but don't fork out $133 or whatever it currently costs. I think maybe someone at Amazon or the publisher screwed up with the new pricing.

I am using this to get up to speed for a class next month. I expected a simple introduction, but it seems to go pretty deep with a lot of detail. This is my first time playing with GIS, and I am sold on ArcView.

One comment about the book is that sometimes the directions are not accurate, which actually helps me learn the program a little more intimately. For example, when changing an attribute the directions say "Click Okay," but I needed to click "Apply" first. This is no big deal and actually makes me think a little bit more about what I am doing and why I am doing it.

Overall, this is a good deal, especially getting a six month trial of the software, which will get me through next semester for less than half the price of the academic version.

I also like that the practice excercises allow me to use a little of my own discretion. Again, this might not be a big deal for others, but I hate getting micro-managed. I tend to shut down and not realy learn a whole lot, until I start experimenting on my own, but the book's format allows me to make enough of my own decisions that I don't feel like I am trapped. I realize that this is probably more of a personality issue, but if you need to learn some GIS fundamentals and hate authority then this book might just work out for you.

This book is a complete and easy to understand tutorial for beginners or self-study readers, it explains through examples, so readers can easily understand the subject. Full of graphics, step-by-step instructions, CD data for working with the tutorials, and 180 days trial ArcView 9.2 Software, make this book a complete tutorial book. Highly Recommended.

My book got here on time for me to turn in my assignments for school and in perfect condition.

This manual is an excellent choice for anyone who wants to learn the ArcGIS enviornment. I teach this professionally, and often recomend this as a good source for material. I highly recomend this to anyone who is starting out in the GIS field.

I bought this book as an alternative to a workplace-offered course that was going to cost me $300, and I'm glad I did. This book took me about a month to get through, working on in my free time, as opposed to the 2-day class, but I've come away with a much more extensive grasp of how to use GIS. The book is quite extensive in what it introduces you to, and is great for referencing if you're already an experienced ArcGIS user. It's obvious the book was originally designed to be used as a college textbook.
My two main complaints are: some of the assignments require downloading information off the web, and it's extremely difficult to locate the information required for the assignment, and in several cases, was impossible, due to the ever-changing nature of websites.
My other complaint is that there is no index, so you have to be very familiar with the textbook and table of contents to know what you're looking for in terms of referencing.
I highly recommend the book, but I would suggest to ESRI to incorporate an index and dedicated companion website for it in future editions.

I currently have this text on my desk and i think it is the best calculus text of those that i have used. There is the right blend of examples, exercises and more complex ideas such as proofs and applications. The ease of reading has made it possible for me to work on my own and understand the later chapters that deal with multiple integration, which i found difficult to understand in the Stewart calculus text. I would reccomend this book to anyone with more than a passing interest in mathematics.

This is a very good book for undergraduate students. I use this book for my Calculus III class, and I feel the authors do a good job here because they explain every concept carefully. I love the proof that follows with every concept.
This book can be a tool book not just for a textbook. If you are looking for a claculus textbook you might consider to use this book!

I've been teaching AP Calculus and College Prep Calculus for several years in high school, and can honestly say that this textbook is far superior to the 3 mainstream calc texts on the market today, ie, Stewart, Larson, and perhaps Anton. This book really should be THE mainstream calculus text used by most schools - and yet it isn't. Why? I have no idea! It puts the others to shame.
The exposition is outstanding. It explains concepts and computations in a very thorough, no-nonsense way, and the graphics are great. The authors write in a very direct, effective way, and have done a superlative job relative to all of the other calc texts I've seen (and I've seen just about all of them!) - with lots of very clear and detailed computations worked out for the student. From someone who's been in the calculus teaching field for a while, I can honestly say that you won't come across a better textbook for elementary calculus I, II and III than this book. I will certainly be keeping this textbook in my library. It's a gem.

This is a great book for both self-study and in-class learning.

As an EE undergrad, this was practically my bible for 2 years. Concepts are explained very well, followed by very clear step-by-step problem-solving examples. Like many textbooks, end-of-chapter problems begin with 10 or so conceptual questions geared towards in-class discussion & understanding, followed by a wide range of problems to work. The variety of problems are very good - they range from very easy and simple to challenging and difficult, ending with "real-world" word problems. While going through my Calc classes, it was very nice to learn and work problems at a comfortable level, skipping the simple ones and avoiding the difficult ones. Now that I'm a little further along in my course work, this book serves as a great review to open up to any chapter and work the more difficult word problems.

While I didn't very much appreciate the chapter(s) on summations and series at the time, they've proven to be an excellent reference three semesters later. Same goes for their explanation of Green's Theorem and a lot of the vector-calculus found near the end. All these topics are explained in great detail, proofs included, and most importantly, in plain english.

Towards the end the text becomes less formal at times. If you're still reading by chapter 10 you probably appreciate Calculus enough to enjoy the authors' writing style and use of interesting real-world applications. You learn quite a bit you don't expect to working problems; how JPEGS compress and have "halos" for example (Fourier Series, chp 8). Their derivation of Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion using Newton's laws (chapter 11) is truly amazing, and they explain it in such a way that anyone with a good grasp of the concepts can understand it.

While much of this may be too much for non math/engineering majors, I've found this book to be invaluable in my studies. I still regularly reference it and read from the chapters not taught in class - a testament to its clarity and ease of use without an instructor.

It has a permanent place on my bookshelf; one of the few books I won't sell - and that's saying a lot coming from a broke undergrad.

Student reviewer here. This book is very attractive and well-illustrated. It has some helpful material for review and/or catching up for students in introductory Calculus classes in Chapter 0 and it spends significant time illustrating real world scenarios in which the concepts can be applied.

The problems I have with the book are the insufficient number and variety of examples provided, the arbitrary notations often used in lieu of more demonstrative ones that would be easier for beginners to understand, the poor explanation of abstract mathematical concepts and procedures, and the incomplete and at times inaccurate accompanying text, the Student Solutions Manual, which is often nothing more than an answer key for odd numbered problems that can also be found at the end of the text, begging the question: why shell out all that extra dough?

The could improve the book dramatically by getting an editor to look over the text for clarity and adding more explanation, demonstration, and homework problems, and by making the Solutions Manual more demonstrative instead of skipping steps that may not be evident to beginners.