Bingham Books

I am a rank beginner when it comes to yoga--I didn't even think about it until last year and just started taking classes this year (2001). This book provides a good introduction to Yoga Zone's brand of yoga--a mixture of three types: Hatha yoga (a physical form of yoga), Tantra yoga (a more philosophical form of yoga) and Ayurveda yoga (a healing form of yoga). The section on breath and breathing (an important part of yoga and life in general) is great and the descriptions and illustrations of the various postures are quite helpful (and take up the bulk of the book). Finger and Bingham have a very personable style of writing that makes it seem you are being spoken to, rather than reading a book.

This book was wonderful, easy to understand, and perfect for beginners as well as seasoned yogis and yoginis. As a yoga teacher, I find myself referring to this book while teaching my class. It's a great way to get yourself started in yoga, and keep you strong and flexible.

Excellent book!! Teaches you how to do yoga from breathing exercises, warm up, strength building and so on, all the way through to relaxation. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in beginning yoga.

like me! Completely new to the yoga scene, I saw this listed in the "Editor's Picks" as one of the top yoga books and decided to buy it based solely on that. And I don't regret it. Alan Finger takes you not only on an informative and practical journey into the world of yoga, but a gently spiritual one as well.

The book is nice quality, with easy-to-read pages and beautifully illustrated poses. I like how he emphasizes substance over form i.e. you don't have to *look* perfect to have a perfect yoga practice. It's the approach and the inner work that goes with it that matters the most.

The form he teaches (ISHTA) is an amalgamation of different yoga "schools", developed by he and his father(a master yogi) and taught in their Yoga Zone studios. He gives a 20 min. practice and a 40 minute regimen, with the option to customize it later when you feel more adept and comfortable.

As for me, I already have all the poses for the 20 minute series marked in red, pages bookmarked, and I plan to get the video tape as well, to get even more benefit from seeing it in action. So, if you're a beginner like me, this seems like a great place to start and I highly recommend it. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'll practice more of that "ujjayi pranayama" breathing... ;)

I have enjoyed the benefits of yoga for several years, guided by excellent teachers. After moving to a new city, I found that I was ready to pass on some of what I know, by starting to teach. This book has been a terrific find -- reminding me to look with fresh eyes at things that I had once learned in class or in workshops which had since become "automatic". I found the writing, illustrations and photographs clear and useful, with enough detail to support good practice. The examples of "misaligned forms" are also wonderfully clear for the novice -- with a colleague or a mirror, an independent student could make good and safe progress. It is a valuable complement to the other books on my Yoga shelf.

when will the CD be available? I travel to several schools providing healthcare to uninsured children and would like to use this valuable reference. (a PNP)

love the format. listed alphabetically, the items are presented in a easy to read format. Just about all I want to know about the problem when working in a busy office. I can read more later but this gets the job done. an excellent 90's type of book. where is the CD?

As a pediatric nurse,I really love this book!! Many times, quick reference books are not thorough enough. This one is. I've used it many times as a teaching tool with parents.

The 5-minute pediatric consult is written in an easy to read outline format. The writers have eliminated unnecesary obscure data and offer a concise outline of all major pediatric diseases. The topics are designed to be read in 5 minutes or less and all the up to date information to diagnose and treat a specific illness is included. The topics are alphabetized, so they are easy to look up. The writers are accomplised experts in their fields and the book has been edited by the distinguished Dr. Schwartz, at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. As a professor of Pediatrics, I highly recommend this book to practicing pediatricians, family practitioners, nurses and students.

Although I do not own this particular edition, I do own a reprint of this classic story.

I highly recommend it to all Batman fans!

Well written and well drawn story. Batman forms an uneasy alliance with his enemy Ra's al-Ghul to take dawn a ruthless terrorist who is developing a weapon to control the weather. Feels more like James Bond than Batman, but it doesn't matter. What elivates this story above others is the heart-breaking romance between Batman and al-Ghul's daughter Talia, which leads to a shocking and very moving conclusion.

The book begins as Batman fights terrorists who have taken hostages. These militants, though, are lackeys for a far greater threat. Indeed, the threat is so great that Batman finds himself becoming the ally of Ras Al Ghul, the Demon's Head. They find themselves aligned against a common threat, a satellite that controls the global weather.

As they join forces, Batman finally gives in and marries Talia. Together, they conceive and Talia becomes pregnant. In addition, Batman trains Ras' men to become better fighters.

I really was surprised by a number of things in this story. It was a departure from things I take for granted in the Batman universe. For instance, Batman does love Talia, but them having a son is really surprising. Batman having a family seems to contradict his image as a lone avenger. One of the ways that people identify with Batman is through the loneliness that he exemplifies.

Also, that Batman would leave Gotham for a few months at a time is shocking to me. He is the guardian of the city, and it would seem that in his mind leaving the city for a few months would be equivalent to abandonment. His obsession with cleaning up Gotham is another of his defining characteristics.

So in some ways this book takes the Batman character in new directions. The plot creates a compelling hypothetical situation that challenges the Batman mythos and stretches it. I was really surprised at some of the ingenuity and creativity. This book takes an interesting turn.

This was one of the earlier Batman Graphic Novels to come out and unlike most of the current ones, this one truly warrants the additional size and investment. A great story of Batman, his nemesis R'as Al Gul (The Demon), and Talia, the Deomn's daughter -- and frequent Batman consort. Great adventure, great character development and excellent writing (much better than the "sequel" Bride of the Demon).

As I was beginning my research for my MSW, I struggled to find appropriate material to address the needs of at-risk teen girls. I knew in my mind that there had to be a way to push young women toward independence, rather than allow them to be sucked into the murky waters of a media-created "feminine" ideal. A fellow student brought "Choices" to my attention. Through readings and practical exercises, it explores attitudes, values, career goals, assertiveness, budgeting, and pregnancy, among other things. It provides an arena for girls to assess their values, to analyze where they come from, and to re-evaluate them based on the assimilation of new knowledge. If I had to list a deficit in this work, it would be that it may lack cultural relevance for certain groups of students. The vignettes which are used to illustrate various concepts are race-ambiguous, which was positive. However, I somehow got the feeling that the stories were about the plight of middle-class or working class girls. I fear that the examples may appear laughable to girls who are homeless, who already have children, or who come from violent or destructive home environments. Perhaps it would be appropriate to include examples which consider race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic variables in the perception and analysis of problems. Despite this drawback, Choices is still a powerful work. In conclusion, this book will appeal to almost anyone who is interested in fostering independence, self-reliance, and self-esteem in young women.

This book really helped me in believing that sex before marrige isn't right and now that I am married and can always look back and thank the author!

I am constantly ordering this book. I am a foster parent for teenagers and I use this book as a family activity as well as at girls slumber parties. It makes thinking of the future and what you want to do with your life almost a fun thing. My childrens' therapists keep borrowing it and not giving it back!

I am a 30 year old woman who received this book back in 1987. I just "rediscovered" it this week. As I look back on the entries, I'm surprised at how much I've grown, how much I've learned, how tolerant I've become & also how I have very much stayed the same. This book guides you thru some of the bad things that can happen to a woman who doesn't plot a course for her life. Some of the myths of being a woman are debunked (can't do math, can't be a trucker, or a construction worker, etc). What I liked most is that it doesn't push any specific feminist ideaology - just asking the question - what would you do? The message is clear - don't count on anyone to "take care of you". It tries to teach us to take care of ourselves. It is true that this book (at least my edition) is geared toward working / middle class teens. But as a middle class teen, it helped me enormously! This book is great and I look forward to getting it for both of my daughters!

This book was first published when I was 6 years old and smack dab in the middle of its target readership. I read it over and over again to my younger sister and we would stare for what seemed like hours at the incredible pictures. We loved the cat, the inspiring story, and the fascinating pictures of Paris. Now that I have a child of my own, I'm so happy to find this book still available. I don't think it is only for girls -- I believe my son can learn a lesson from the story and appreciate the artwork as well as any girl. (He loves cats; I don't know why people think of cats as a "girly" animal.)

Mindy Bingham

Minou

THIS BOOK IS VERY CUTE. i REALLY WISH i COULD HAVE I SO I COULD READ MORE TIMES. THIS BOOK IS A BOOK THAT A TEACHER RECCOMENDED TO ME IF IT WOULDNT BEEN BY THAT TEACHER I WOULDNT BE DOING THIS REVIEW. READ IT !

In a world where all too many girls' books are subtly anti-feminist, Minou is a parable for girls, both pre-reading and early reading age, that teaches the joys and pride of self sufficiency.

Girls readily identify with cats, dancers, artists, horses, and fairy tale heroines, and Minou is readily the first and the last -- but without the saccharine "Prince Charming" and his sweeping away to "Ever After" Land. Every girl I have read this book to, or read with has identified easily with Minou, and agreed that self sufficiency is far superior to dependency.

Maeno's illustrations are gorgeous, and as the "mother" of a small siamese, incredibly accurate in description and depiction.

The ending is not, as a previous reviewer stated, perfect, but it is an independent happy ending, and that alone makes this worth 4 stars.

All three of my children, ages 2, 6, and 8, huddled around to hear this entire story! (How often does THAT happen?) The illustrations are simply beautiful, and in fact inspired my 6-year-old to experiment with more shades of color in his drawings, "like an artist." The story is intriguing, keeping my savvy 8-year-old interested to the end. We live in Paris now, so there was heightened interest to see familiar sights pictured in the story. Minou learns a valuable lesson. At the end of the story, however, I felt the message was somewhat forced. Still, I plan to give this book as Christmas gifts to all the cousins back in the U.S.A!

This book covers quite a few fields (axiomatic probability, stochastic processes, financial theory) to the extent that they relate to valuation of securities. Naturally, the scope of coverage in such a brief tome (< 300 p.) is limited. It is written clearly and with precision, with sufficient number of exercises provided at chapters' ends. I would say that it goes to greater depth than Neftci, and is far more rigorous than Wilmott. Incomparably easier to understand than Merton. The only shorcomings I can find are relative paucity of examples and inadequate Index.

The language of financial derivatives is, arguably, the language of the modern theory of martingale stochastic processes. In this approach pricing contingent claims is reduced to finding an "equivalent martingale measure". Practitioners would think in terms of risk adjusted or risk neutral valuation. To understant this topic from an abstract and rigorous point of view is a daunting task restricted to a relatively small elite. For those seeking to learn the mechanics of this discipline a good foundation is well provided by the texts from Hull, Options, Futures and Other Derivatives, as well as Jarrow & Turbull, Derivatives Securities. These books present the intuition behind the formulas and how to use them in practical situations, but they do not show where the formulas come from and much less the mathematics necessary to prove them. Before the book under review was published, this task was attempted by other authors with mixed degrees of success. Here we briefly mention three of them. Baxter and Rennie's Financial Calculus (233 pages) is written in an informal fashion about deep mathematics and one has the feeling that the essence of the topics covered can be grasped and understood from it. However, behind this innocent style there is a huge amount of sophisticated machinery that, in my opinion, should have in part been presented in more detail. An instructor is left with the feeling that it could have been much more profitable to work a bit harder on the students and give them a more complete picture of the theory. Next comes Neftci's Mathematics of Financial Derivatives (352 pages). Its language is more accessible than Baxter and it gives a more detailed and extensive description on most topics. Mathematically, though, it falls short of current usage and rigour. The book by Musiela & Rukowski, Martingale Methods in Financial Modelling (511 pages), is far more difficult than any of these and should be read and understood only by a few. It requires previous knowledge of stochastic processes at the level of, for example, Probability with Martingales by D. Williams. The book under review is an excellent text for courses and for individual readers with a modest background in probability. There is no compromise with mathematical language and concepts. They are presented precisely and illustrated by examples without the burden of more technical theorem-proving approach in advanced mathematical texts. After introducing the idea of derivatives and risk-neutral valuation, it gives a summary of modern probability theory including measure, integral, conditional expectation, modes of convergence, characteristic functions and the Central Limit Theorem. This sets the framework for the rest of the book. Stochastic processes and finance in discrete time are not pre-requites for the much more complicated continuous time but serve as a pedagogical preparation for it. The Third and Fourth Chapters are dedicated to the discrete case and key concepts are carefully analysed. Information and filtrations are discussed as well as the important random walk processes as a motivation for the Brownian Motion. The culmination of these efforts is the proof of the Fundamental Theorem of Asset Pricing: in an arbitrage-free complete market there exists a unique equivalent martingale measure. A very readable discussion on binomial trees is given, including the proof that in the limit of small time increments one recovers from it the usual Black-Scholes formula for a call option. Chapters Five and Six are dedicated to stochastic processes and finance in continuous time. This includes filtrations, a sketch for the construction of Brownian Motion, quadratic variation of Brownian Motion, stochastic integrals and Ito calculus, stochastic differential equations, etc. A continuous version of the Fundamental Theorem is discussed but not proven. The main formula for risk-neutral valuation in terms of expected values is proven. A general result about the relationship with other approaches is that solutions to partial differential equations have a stochastic representation in terms of expected values (Feynman-Kac Formula). On p. 211 a discussion is presented regarding our knowledge concerning continuous time securities market in comparison to the discrete case.

If you are really interested in understanding the probabilistic foundations of modern financial derivatives theory, please consider seriously this book. Another reference, in the same spirit that I recommend is the excellent notes from Shreve, Stochastic Calculus and Finance, which is not yet in book form. After reading the text by Bingham and Kiesel you will gain a solid background well worth the effort and will be able to read profitably most of the contemporary texts and articles on this subject.

I am a PhD student in Applied Math but with only a basic background on Probability (I am on the side of Analysis, Differential Equations and Topology) and I was looking for a comprehensible textbook on options and derivatives with a probabilistic approach. I wanted a readable, preferably self contained text in pricing financial products with both discrete and continuous stochastic processes, and this text was the right choice.

This text is self contained: it gives you all the probability background you need in order to understand stochastic processes in both discrete and continuous time. True, you need basic background on probability but just an undergraduate course.

The authors use thoroughly the Arbitrage principle just as a physicist uses Newton's law: they build up portfolios and then they use arbitrage (like F=ma) to derive the solution. This idea of "no arbitrage" as the basis of finance can be contested but it is the standard way to proceed when valuating derivatives. I have read several books on derivatives and this was the first one that taught me the very principle behind all the finance: "the fair price of a product is such that there is no free lunch without taking risks", or as the authors say, one should discount everything and take expected values under risk neutral probabilities.

The book proves everything but the huge and technical theorems like e.g. Ito's, Feynman-Kac's or Girsanov's. It is OK since the emphasis is on the relevant concepts and their correct use and interpretation and not on hard mathematics: the heavy proofs and constructions are outlined and references are mentioned.

If you are interested in the hard proofs I suggest Oksendal "Stochastic Differential Equations", and if you are looking for a non probabilistic approach of pricing derivatives I strongly recommend Wilmott "Quantitative finance", which is PDE based.

I have read this book... from a learning perspective of trying to learn what the theory behind options pricing is it is a great book. A lot of more recent topics are missing, but as a starter book for those who already price options/work in the industry without having learned all the theory (or in my case forgotten what they learned in school) it is a great read and a great reference.

Thanks to Dr. Cosby and Renee Pouissant we now have a fabulous book allowing elders, who have lived history, to tell us the truth about American History. At last a book that respects our elders and allows them the opportunity to express the truth of their experiences. It is entertaining, historical and informative. Once you start reading you can't put it down and when finished you are ready for the next edition. It is refreshing to read about courageous people who have been given the freedom to express their truth rather than stories that pretend to know their truth. Every school should have this book in their curriculum and the pattern of this book should be the impetus to get people of all ethnicities to respect their elders and learn from them.

This is a wonderful book of advice from wise African-Americans.
I recommend this book and another book called SURVEY OF 300 A+ STUDENTS,
by a wise African-American at Harvard (Kenneth Green).

This is one of those rare books I simply could not stop reading! I highly recommend it. The interviews are intimate and illuminating, and I think young adults in particular will be inspired, though middle-aged ones like myself can take heart in how much these folks are STILL achieving well after 70. While I enjoyed getting to know some of the famous people in a new way, I was especially impressed by stories of "unfamous" elders like the educators Jayme Coleman Williams and McDonald Williams, people who have had tremendous, sustained impact in their communities. The best part is, you can access even more of the work of the National Visionary Leadership Project at their web site, VisionaryProject.com

I enjoy reading this book. Really. The reason I gave it the four stars is that there wasn't enough of them. Mostly it had stories from famous people that we already know on. What I wanted to read was from people who are not as famous. Who had a lot of things to tell. I pray there is a sequel.

As an English speaking parent in Switzerland, we liked the idea of ASL. The book is very comprehensive and well set up, the only negative for me is that the signs are not always super clear, and you have to guess a little sometimes.

Still, it is definatly reccommendable and I would buy it again

I love the Baby Signing Book. Love the games and songs in it, and I especially like that it's ASL, not "baby sign."

I am an RN, my daughter is 9 months old, I have been using this book in addition to the Signing Times DVD's , it is great, easy to understand, and well organized. It is actually based on ASL, not improvised signs, my baby already knows about 5 signs, and attempts her own versions of them too.My 6 year has taken an interest in teaching her baby sister as well

I love the DVD set Baby Signing Time by Rachel de Azevedo Coleman, but my daughter and I were ready for more words. Since there are only two DVDs out so far, we needed another resource. This book is great! The first third of this book is broken into the following chapters:
1. A Quick Course in Baby Signing
2. Sign Language Development
3. Signing with Your Young Baby (0-6 mos)
4. " (6-12 mos)
5. " (12-18 mos)
and so on through 3 years
Also included "Signing with Your Special Needs Child" and "How to Sign and Sing." (Classic songs like "The Itsy Bitsy Spider, "Old MacDonald" and "The Wheels on the Bus"; and ones that are put to classic songs but that help reinforce your sign-vocab like the "Change Your Diaper Song" put to "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain.")

The rest of the book is a picture dictionary of words you will want to use when communicating with your child. Pretty much every word I have looked up in order to sing nursery songs is there. Sometimes I look for a word and it isn't there, but this doesn't happen often. And these are usually words that are not specifically geared for the little guys. It makes me hopeful that there will be a part two one day.

The pictures are very helpful and clearly drawn and labeled. I keep it in my nursery and refer to it whenever I am talking to my daughter and don't have a "key word" in my sign language knowledge.

If you are looking to get started with sign language, I recommend the DVDs I mentioned at the beginning AND this book.

Born on the Island is a historical fiction based on the great Galveston hurricane of 1900. After the Great Storm, the survivors were bound together by the mere fact that they lived when more than 6000 died. Being "BOI" became heroic, a symbol to wear and share with their kind. Besides the body count, the destruction of property and the town itself with its hopes and dreams--there lies a love story. Actually, there are several love stories woven into the main vein of BOI. The gifted author creates compelling, believeable, yet flagrantly flawed characters. Linda Bingham possesses the talent to draw the reader in giving you insight into three generations of individuals as they learn or fail to cope with the results of their tragedy. Once you've read "BOI" you will discover the meaning of before or after the Great Storm.

Born on the Island is the story of how one family copes with the worst natural disaster in American history--the great Galveston hurricane of 1900. This catastrophe killed more than 6000 people on the Island of Galveston, and many more on the mainland. Entire families were wiped out, necessitating the mass burning of bodies in the streets. The property damage was unprecedented, virtually destroying the town, as well as, obviously, the hopes and dreams of everybody in it. But this book is not just about a hurricane, although Bingham's descriptions of the storm itself are chillingly on target. It is about the human dynamic of coping with a cataclysmic event that affects in one way or another everyone whom you have ever known. The people of Galveston circa the turn of the century lived two lives: Before the Great Storm, and After. Before, the Coolidge family prospered. After, they represented just a few more casualties. But we get to watch as they try and arise from the ashes of that one horrible day--the unforgiving, haunting experience that all on the island have in common. This knowledge somehow binds the citizenry together for all time. Being "BOI," or Born on the Island, becomes a symbol of survival, an indigenous Texas Red Badge of Courage. How do the Coolidges react to this huge, shared event? As with all living beings, each according to his or her own degree of inner strength and essential humanity. Some rise to the occasion, confronting the horror head-on, rebuilding the town and otherwise being causal to the direct, tangible benefit of all. Some simply co-exist with it, and nothing more. Still others capitulate to it, emotionally, spiritually, and developmentally. Bingham's characters are complex and not the least bit sterotyped. Some of the twists will leave you fascinated, or at least sporting a wry smile of appreciation. The author has the gift of being able to draw you into their lives immediately, making you care deeply about them, whether you particularly like or admire them at all. For there is so much bad in the best of them, and so much good in the worst of them. The dialogue has an historical ring of truth that is compelling. The reader believes that this is exactly what these people would have been talking about, and this is exactly how they would have expressed themselves. Yet the author never gets bogged down in historical parlance that is tiresome or difficult to read. The book is also about love, which is an excellent literary subject, after all, assuming the story is well done. Love makes its appearance how and where it pleases. It does not always fit neatly into the expectations and norms of society or the people whose approval we seek. Not today, and not in Galveston in the first part of the 20th Century. This book captures perfectly the spirit of Galveston, and to a large extent, Texas. Bingham is the female Larry McMurtry. But you will enjoy BOI's unique viewpoint regardless of where you live. I highly recommend it.

This book is a fantastic way to learn more of what life was like in Galveston during the 20th century. Anyone interested in how people coped with storms and personal tragedy would enjoy this interesting read. I really liked the format. Half the book is written using a journaling format and the other half is written using a more typical style of writing. This allowed me to learn about each character very thorougly. The real surprise for me was learning that some of the problems that plague society today existed way back then!

This book is a GREAT resource for your family. Your kids will love the pictures and facts scattered throughout the pages. It is well organized, colorful, and full of information. My kids are 9, 8, and 6 and have all benefitted from having this book at home. This book makes reading assignments fun! Great for homsechoolers, and the internet links are terrific. Even as an adult, I have enjoyed reviewing the stuff I learned when I was in school as a child.

The only downside to this book is that some of the pictures cover the page numbers. This makes it a little hard to find a certain page because this sometimes occurs for several pages in a row.

I am teaching my children ancient history and needed something to give my curriculum some meat. This book does it! Very thorough (100 pages on Egypt), colorful, covers concepts such as government, religion, architecture, and daily life for each civilization. Even mentions a few empires other books don't bother to bring up.

Not only does this Encyclopedia look impressive on the bookshelf, but it is quite impressive in content as well. On opening this 400 page hard covered book, it oozes tactfully and beautifully layed out illustrations and photographs from start to finish.
This Encyclopedia covers the Mesopotamian World, Ancient Egypt, Ancient, Archaic and Classical Greece and the Roman World giving you historical background along with insight to the every day life that one may of experienced in that time. For Example, in covering Ancient Rome, the major headings are Early Rome, The Roman Republic, the Roman Empire, Everyday Life, The End of Empire, The Roman Word factfinder etc.
If you want to look further into a topic that is covered in this Encyclopedia, it does add an internet link on the same page of that topic so you aren't scouring the back trying to find the link.
My only dissapointment with this Encyclopedia is that it does not cover Ancient China and other ancient civilisations. When I looked at the title of this Encyclopedia, I just presumed that they would be covered, but not so.
Other than this, this is a very user friendly Encyclopedia and glad it is in my home library.