Chow Books

Bottom line: not the quality of book that I have come to expect of a Men's Health endorsed author. The glossy, high production photos of dishes are unnecessary and the only useful info (phasing a plan, what are the basic foods you should store) could fit in to a magazine article. I recommend that instead of buying this book you just search the Men's Health website for recipe ideas and training/diet articles. That is all

This book is amazing. The first 28 pages provide a solid foundation of dieting principles targeted specifically for active guys who weight train. Gregg Avedon really knows what he is talking about when it comes to nutrition and his writing style is concise and easy to read. The rest of the book is filled with tons of high-protein healthy recipes. He even includes the nutrition facts for each recipe so you know exactly what you are eating. If you are a guy looking for some good healthy recipes to match your training regimen, this is the book to get.

I got this Book , becuase I never knew what to eat Before and after a work out. I do a Lot of cardio, and I wanted to ensure I wasnt Burning up my hard earned muscle! This book is very good, not just for men , but women as well. Yes the recipies are SIMPLE, but I LOVE simple. It tells You HOW , WHY and WHEN to eat for maximum effect. The recipies are Not gourmet, But when your training you really have to eat CLEAN, and this is what it is. I would reccomend this Book for it's information, and How it tells You EXACTLY what you need to do. I Havent had it long enought to comment on the recipies, but I Browsed them and Id eat everything in there, and theres No Fancy Ingredients You cant Find. ( except for a few Reccomendations he has, and he gives you websites to find the food if you want it) The ONLY Flaw I Found was On Page 14, it says to SEE RECOVERY FOODS ( AFter WOrkout) on Page 224. They are Not on Page 224, they are On Page 204. Printer error I Guess.
Good Book- ! I am Not trying to Bulk up, as I Am a Female, I am Toning, and want a Little Muscle definition. So you do have to adjust the recipeies and calorie counts for Days, to Your own body, but he tells You How! Good Stuff in this Book, worth the Price!

It's hard to find a decent clean-eating cookbook. This one certainly is decent, but I wouldn't give it much more praise than that. There are some recipes that are pretty good and all of them are quite straightforward, but my major problem with the book is that some of the recipes are complete fluff that could have been all compiled onto a single page ("quick bites", or something like that). For instance, the "Fix and Eat Sardine Sandwich". Now, I'm going from memory here, but I'm pretty sure that the steps boiled down to these steps: Take two slices of bread, spread mustard on each slice, then put the sardines between the two pieces of bread and eat them. Sorry, Gregg, but I'm a healthy eater, not someone who's never been in a kitchen before. There are other recipes like this ("Slice up a head of lettuce and serve it with mustard as dipping sauce", for example) that are really wastes of space.

Also, it would have been good to see more explanation regarding carb-cycling (or carb-shifting as he describes it), along with macronutrient breakdowns for the different eating phases Gregg describes in the book.

There's some good stuff in here, that's for sure, but it's too much like a fluffernutter sandwich: lots of healthy potential surrounded, unfortunately, by too much fluff.

OK. I know this is a guy book and I'm not a guy. Let's start with that. I was led to this book because I had read about it in one of my publications. I absolutely detest cooking and I have a panic attack just thinking about the kitchen. My mother taught me to drive and type. She didn't teach me to cook.

I've bought many cookbooks and hate them all. They're all too complicated for my maladjusted cooking genes. But this book --- well that's a different story! This is easy to follow and fun. Yes, fun.

I've found that I can eat foods that taste absolutely fantastic and it takes little effort, little fat and no junk that's bad for me. I've learned to use spices and things I had never known how to use before. I'm loving this.

Moreover, I'm losing weight. I log everything in my Palm Pilot on a program from CalorieKing. It's easy to know how many calories are in each dish. Now, as a woman, I may not eat a whole serving. So I simply adjust that in my log.

I must tell you that for the first time in my life I'm enjoying being in the kitchen. I fix foods ahead, which makes my life much easier.

All the recipes are easy to fix and don't take many ingredients. You'll find this type of eating gives you more energy and keeps you feeling full. At the same time, you can get really ripped. And losing weight is easy and fun.

And, if you guys will forgive me, I recommend this book to my sisters as well as to you.

The one thing I don't like about it is not the content. It's the book. I'd prefer a spiral book that I can lay out on my tiny kitchen counter. Also one that can be cleaned as I am a mess in the kitchen.

Update: After using the book for a month, I do have at least one issue with it. Take for example the Mixed-Berry Protein Mousse on page 237. This is a wonderful menu and the taste is indescribable. Wonderful. But it says is makes six servings. That's fine. But how much is one serving? I mean, out of the total made, is a serving 1 cup, one-half cup or what? I would like to know how much to take out of the bowl to make one serving. Otherwise, I'm unsure how many calories I'm actually getting.

Having said that, I've lost seven pounds in one month by following the foods and counting calories and I've yet to be really hungry. It's amazing!

But dear author, when and if you do an update (and I hope you do) please tell us what one serving is.

I did improve on one of the easy recipes. At least to me it's a major improvement. The recipe calls for mashing tofu and adding protein powder. Well, It's okay. But here's something better:

Tofu as called for in recipe
Protein as called for in recipe
Put in blender (preferable one with a milkshake blade)
Add coconut water (not much)
Add one pk. stevia

Blend until smooth. This makes a wonderful milkshake with a lovely texture. It's much better than what you get with the recipe in the book and just two or three added calories from the coconut water.

Highly recommended.

-Susanna K. Hutcheson

Though the Financials OCP exam is being retired, the Financials package itself remains unchanged. This book is still the best introduction to how to use Oracle Financials.

The exam this book relates to retires in about 2 weeks from now and Oracle Corporation has not given an indication of what will succeed this exam.

How relevant is the book if I can't use it for the specified exams?

This is the most thorough book on Financials I've seen. A must-have, whether you're going for the OCP certification or not.

Most complete treatment of Financials I've seen. Excellent book.

Top notch all the way around. Got me through all five exams. That OCP logo looks mighty good on my resume!

This book is an excellent adjunct to use in studying for Step 2 CK. By challenging you with a gut-reaction recall type format, you will actively learn and reinforce important topics and associations. It's best used for a quick review in the final days of Step 2 studying to refresh your memory of all the high yield associations.

I found this book to be extremely helpful along with doing questions. It has high yield facts and it's easy to read. However, unlike other reviewers I wouldn't use it as my only source. This book does not go into a lot of detail, so you have to start with a solid background.

First thing first. I scored a 247 on Step 1. As many of you know that have taken the exam. The key is to know what to study for the exam since there is an infinite amount of information. Once you find the "tested" information you have to sit down and MEMORIZE. That is the key to these USMLE exams. For those that have trouble memorizing the necessary information, the best thing to do is to "do questions" so that way you can remember the key concepts. For Step 1 all you really need is First Aid for Step 1, Goljan audio, and Kaplan QBank + Qbook. That's it....

Now for Step 2 it is much different. First Aid is not as high yield as it is for Step 1. Even if you had First Aid for Step 2 in the exam room with unlimited time there will be information that is NOT IN THE BOOK. First Aid lives off of its Step 1 reputation.

For Step 2, I scored a 241. Which isn't spectacular BUT I studied for the exam during my interview season in January. I studied for 3 weeks. I memorized this book and did USMLE World questions. That is all you need. Most of the high yield information that is TESTED is not found in First Aid. Use your time wisely. My advice is to memorize this book, Step 2 Secrets, and do ALL of the questions (and read every answer explanation) in USMLE World. Keep in mind though there will still be questions that you have never seen but these will be fewer and far between if you use the "right" resources. Good Luck.

"Deja Review" was the reason I aced my USMLE Step2. Aside from doing practice questions, this is the only other resource you need to conquer the boards. It is extremely high-yield and concise... perfect for many students like myself who only had 2 weeks to study for the step2. The question-answer format of the text helps the reader actively learn and more importantly remember the material. I wish I knew about DejaReview back when I was studying for Step1. I highly recommend it to all medical students.

UCSD makes us take step 2 early on in the year and time is defintiely a limiting factor. If you are in the same boat, I would highly recommend this book. Even if you are not under a time crunch, you should still read this book to re-enforce facts you already know. The Q&A format is similar to that of Surgical Recall. I used a question bank and read this book to tie everything together before I took the exam. This book is very high yield, and works well as an adjuvant to a more cohesive detailed review source like usmle world q-bank.

After I took step 2, I passed the book onto a fellow panicked classmate going into derm and after reading the book, lets just say he didn't need an ativan or xanex hook-up before the exam. I read the book in 1.5 days (w/ several breaks) and my confidence defintely went way up afterwards.If you are worried about step 2, buy this book and you will realize that you know more from 3rd year than you think.

On radiology, my resident asked me what books I used for step 2 review. Being the slow person that I am, I didn't put two and two together. John Naheedy is now a radiology resident at UCSD and he is a nice guy. So besides donating to feed the "John Naheedy Foundation," your USMLE step 2 score will be higher than your step 1 score after Deja Review: USMLE STEP 2 Essesntials, guaranteed! Good luck on the exam! =)

I'm a psych major in college, so I naturally enjoyed reading about these important studies. However, I think anyone could enjoy this book. It's very readable and covers crucial research from all areas of psychology. Read about one study or all forty; this is a great book!

This book does an excellent job of summarizing the most important contributions of psychological research in its relatively young history. As a psychology professor, I plan to use this book in the classroom -- many of my colleagues already do. It gives students a great history lesson and also familiarizes them with past and current theories in the field of psychology. We especially love how the author includes more recent studies that have resulted from the original 40 studies -- current directions, so to speak. Great book!

this book is great! very interesting studies that psychologist have made throughout tHE YEARS. I USE IT FOR my psych class in college.

Book is in perfect condition and was received in a timely fashion. Thanks!

I really wasn't looking forward to yet another psychology text, but this one is actually enjoyable. The author has managed to pare down each study to the essentials and doesn't waste a ton of space trying to entertain the reader. I would recommend it for anyone interested in how the mind works, and the information that has made our understanding greater.

Despite its title, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting and Owning a Dog," isn't for idiots at all. Instead, people who buy it will be savvy dog owners with a plethora of information at their fingertips. I hope people will buy this book before they buy their dog.

This new book by Sheila Webster Boneham is an especially good one for those who have never owned a dog before, or who may have had a dog, but who didn't explore all the facets of dog ownership. She offers a lot of suggestions about what to consider before getting a dog.

She covers everything from selecting a breed that fits your lifestyle, to what supplies you need to get when you bring your pet home. In a chapter on "Size and Other Big Decisions," she asks the important question, "What do you want from your dog?" Many people don't consider this before they bring that cute puppy home, yet the answers will determine whether you have a dog you love, but don't like, or have the perfect canine soul mate.

Boneham handles potentially controversial topics -- like vaccinations and feeding methods -- fairly and objectively. So new owners are aware of the pros and cons, and more importantly where and how to get more information.

Her chapter on "What Every Dog Should Know" has good advice on training and reinforcement. She urges her readers to take their dogs to at least one good obedience class. There is a helpful list suggesting how to tell if an instructor is qualified to teach the class. One suggestion is to not be shy about asking the instructor what her credentials are. As an obedience instructor, I would love to have someone ask me this, because it gives me a chance to brag about my dogs, and the dogs of former students.

A special gem of information is in a section on "Living with more than one dog."

"If you try to apply human ideas about equality and fairness to your family of dogs, you create confusion. For instance, if you try to treat the dogs equally and you alternate who gets a treat first 'to be fair' you undermine the dominant or alpha dog's position. In a pack, the alpha eats first, gets the best bed and controls the resources. If your alpha dog is hogging the chewy toys and you take them from him and divvy them up, you again undermine his position."

So many people do not understand this concept, so it is especially valuable to have it explained in this book for new dog owners.

There's also a nice chapter on canine medical emergencies, including what to include in a first aid kit.

The jacket notes indicate that Boneham competes in a variety of dog sports with her dogs, and does dog-assisted therapy as well. This experience comes through in her well-written book.

All in all, this is a terrific book, at a great price, and one I can heartily recommend to new dog and puppy owners.

A must read for every dog owner, and future dog owner. Consider it to be a course in Introductory Dog 101. Simple, yet it works. Wish it had been there, when my first dog joined our household. Would have saved many anxious moments, plus the rugs. Arlene Millman, author of BOOMERANG - A MIRACLE TRILOGY (The tale of a remarkable Boston Terrier).

A must read for every dog owner, and future dog owner. Consider it to be a course in Introductory Dog 101. Simple, yet it works. Wish it had been there, when my first dog joined our household. Would have saved many anxious moments, plus the rugs. Arlene Millman, author of BOOMERANG - A MIRACLE TRILOGY (The tale of a remarkable Boston Terrier).

Actually this is a great book to have if you plan on getting a dog or you already own a dog. Easy to read and understand. It covers everything from A-Z on caring for your dog from a young puppy to the senior citizen. I will recommend this book to all my puppy, basic and advance students.

This book is must for every potential or real dog owner's bookshelf! Ms. Boneham does an excellent job of helping you through the steps of choosing and living with your dog. The book is an excellent source of of information itself and includes many references, both on the Web and otherwise. In the future, this book will be part of all my puppy's going-to-their-new-home bag.

Finally a book that lives up to the title.
Nicely written, stays w/in the scope of the book - clear photographs included.

Good primer on the subject.

An absolutely wonderful book. A complete step by step guide with full pictures and descriptions of the practitioner and client's positions. History and diagrams are informative.
Kam Thai Chow is a Master of great Excellence!
I am signed up to study wherever he goes!

thorough, user-friendly, and helpful.

Kam Thye Chow's book is fantastic. You will not be disappointed.

(I currently have the German version of this book, but I assume that the English one includes the same info.) I have just finished a course in Thai massage, and the traditional technique, as taught by Asokananda (aka Harald Brust), the man who brought Thai massage to the Western world, does NOT begin in the sitting position. Asokananda teaches the importance of beginning a massage at the feet, and then working upwards. From what I understand, this is important because Thai massage balances the energy in a body and the flow must go upwards through the chakras to the head. That said, this book includes some excellent photographs and the rest of its content is extremely helpful to anyone learning Thai massage. I think that Asokananda's book should still be the starting point for everyone, though.

The pictures are great. I especially like Henry Cole's drawing of Wilbur(some pig, Charloote's Web). However, on Page 33, Fern's name should be Fern Arable, not Fern Avery. This is editor's fault. For this, I gave 4 stars. This book was a product of Reading Is Fundamental, Inc. They should have not made such a mistake.

I like to see better editing, especially for children's books.

A really beautiful picture book for adults showcasing a variety of different children's illustrators to showcase an array of picture book art. I picked this up at a conference and I think it is great for librarians or anyone who loves books.

This collection of artwork is an inspiration to future illustrators. It is helpful for teachers trying to show students that reading is important for many reasons.

Among the delights in this book, "The Art of Reading", are artists respectfully mimicking other artists, sharing memories of favorite books, of authors & illustrators; each one encouraging their audience to read and ENJOY. The cover illustration, by the late influential Fred Marcellino, was chosen for its appropriate subject of cat and mouse cozily reading together!

First, I raced through, looking for my favorite illustrators. Then I would pause often to laugh at someone's adaptation, as for example Paul Zelinsky's wonderfully amusing interpretation of "The Color Kittens" and his delightful essay. 'All bases are covered' in this handsome book: it salutes childhood favorites and teachers who were mentors while exploring a variety of mediums & styles. How different and imaginative are the creations of Lois Ehlert, Raul Colon, David McPhail. Bryan Collier with his layers of art and photo collages inspires the detective in us, trying to figure out the source of materials.

All the artists stir some regret that we do not share their talents, yet we love the trips back to happy lap-times and those exciting years of discovering the meaning of words. RIF (*Reading is Fundamental*), an important non-profit literacy organization, has compiled for their 40th anniversary celebration this elegant gift for all who love to read. Reviewer mcHAIKU 'toasts' all the happy memories forever attached to magical artists such as Wanda Gag, Maurice Sendak and Garth Williams.

As an elementary librarian I am always interested to see what books people have loved since childhood. It's fun to see how many can conjure up warm feelings about their mothers, or teachers or even a book's character that they identified with as a child.

How delightful to see what books influenced some of our most talented children's illustrators by reading The Art of Reading! And like the "cherry on top", we get to see their creation in salute to the book.

This is a great book on hydrology, the author is very famous in both hydrology and hydraulics area.

This is a well-written and fairly comprehensive textbook for the science and engineering of hydrology, suitable for undergraduate and graduate courses. I used it for a class taught by one of the authors (David Maidment), so it was a natural fit for the class, but I believe that any competent teacher could make good use of it. The example problems are useful and the explanations are clear.

I took a hydrology course taught by one of the authors (Larry Mays) using this book. Advantages of this book lies in (1) the arrangement of the contents is very logic-oriented, you don't feel aburpt jump from one chapter to another one, (2) the theory addressed in the text is concise, easy to read and understand, (3) the examples used to illustrate the theories are very correlated. Other books may be good too, however, in terms of "hydrology" alone, I haven't seen a better one. It is a useful reference for your understanding of hydrologic design manual, creteria.

A must have reference for those of you guys in the field of Applied Hydrology. If you are tackling the task of modeling some particular hydrologic process, you will find the detailed descriptions and flow charts very handy. Step by step derivations of equations, excellent referencing and convenient chapter setup makes this book a first-to-look reference. Although it is a 1988 print, you will hardly feel it unless you really dig into details like flow routing in meandering rivers.

I believe you will enjoy reading this book...

I use this text to teach a first-semester graduate class for civil engineers who are targeting a graduate degree with emphasis on hydrology. I've been using the text for nearly ten years. It might be a little advanced for undergraduates, but certainly is in the grasp of advanced undergraduate students.

Applied Hydrology is the text I wanted way back when I was in graduate school. Chow was still alive but had not finished the book. I was introduced to his writing in his open-channel hydraulics text, which I thought (and still think) is the best. Applied Hydrology was assembled posthumously by Maidment and Mays, who did a good job putting together whatever remained of Chow's work. I'm very glad they undertook the process and published the work. It's an important text for my discipline specialty.

Part 1 of the text covers the basics and does it well. This material is timeless and will not change much as new research comes available. Part 2 covers analysis and shows its age, just a bit. Unit hydrographs and lumped-flow routing are old technologies and while updates are inevitable, the basic technologies will not change. Chapters 9 and 10 are a bit dated as substantial work has been done over the last 15 years. They're still good, but require supplementation. Chapters 11 and 12 again contain great fundamentals but the technology is changing. The theory of linear moments (L-moments) is working its way into hydrologic statistics for fitting distributions to datasets. Furthermore, there is a trend toward using resistant statistics (median, inter-quartile range, and others) for description of the statistics of hydrologic datasets. Part 3 on hydrologic design is still good, but is also showing its age just a little. Again, the basics are great and well-explained. However, as new data become available and new analyses of those data are accomplished, new interpretations also become available. This is true especially with precipitation atlases and the estimation of n-year precipitation events, and hence n-year hydrologic events.

My observations are not an indictment of Applied Hydrology; it remains my favorite engineering hydrology textbook and I will continue to use it to teach engineers about hydrology. In my opinion, this is the best upper-undergrauate/graduate engineering hydrology text available. Like all textbooks, it is beginning to show its age because technology is not stagnant. But its descriptions of core concepts and the application thereof remains top notch.

Excellent book. Quick read, practical spiritual reminders, nice inclusion of some personal experiences.

I attended Unity North Atlanta when Carole was the Reverend there. My husband and I just so much appreciated her honesty and genuine caring for the world. She's not afraid to speak truths that may 'offend' others, at the great hope that her words will reach them and convict them to face their true self.
The book is a great gift to give someone who is just starting to realize that maybe they actually deserve to feel good in life and have a right to create their own POSITIVE reality!
The book is uplifting and an 'easy read'! If you want to feel good, or share a gift to help other's feel good, here it is! :-]
Thanks Carole - we love you dearly!!

Follow Carole O'Connell on a journey as she shows you how to live a life of pure delight. When you know that you deserve the best and begin to make conscious choices, the possibilities are limitless. This book will lead the way. Every step in the book is a practice worth cultivating. I especially enjoyed the stories of how people have benefited from this enlightened thinking."

Carole O'Connell's book, The Power of Choice, is one of the best books I have ever read. Carole guides us to the knowing that we are all responsible for what happens to us. We create whatever is in our lives. If we don't like what we have in our lives, the power to change and create anew is in us through the choices we make. Her suggestion to do "Appreciation Work" everyday is very powerful. By appreciating everything we have in our lives, there is no time to focus on the negative aspect of our lives.

Her phrase, "Enjoy The Journey Into Joy" is a mantra we can all live by.

Her book is helping me to transform my life! I loved the book and recommend it to everyone who is looking to transform their life for the better.

What a gift to find a book with insights that are both powerful and practical! It reminds me in a practical way how powerful my choices are! Keep this book close at hand. You will pick it up often.

Sandra Wilkes

For the next edition - if there is one - I would like to see Professor Chow discuss at greater length two related issues: trade and currency.

Since the middle of 2003, China has become America's third largest trade partner (America is China's second largest partner), replacing Japan, according to the US Dept of Commerce.

The issue of the renminbi (yuan) is a hot potato in this election year, as many American politicians are clamoring for a "free-floating" of China's currency (as a solution to America's jobless problem, trade deficit, etc.).

Professor Chow needs to deal with this issue. I've heard counter-arguments from some real heavyweights: David Eldon, the Chairman of the global banking giant HSBC, and 2 Nobel Laureates in Economics - Robert Mundell, the world's #1 expert on international currency, and Joseph Stiglitz, the former Chief Economist of the World Bank and Chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers. All three point out that fooling around with the renminbi now would destroy the world economy without doing anything to solve America's problems. The editors of Fortune, Forbes, and Business Week agree: Be careful what you wish for, because you may get more than expected.

My guess is, Professor Chow will take these issues apart with the same analytical and keen intelligence he addresses other issues related to China's economic transformation.

Chow's prediction (p. 102-3 & 384) that around 2020 China's GDP will be equal to that of the US in PPP terms is based on statistics from a World Bank study. I undertook a study of my own based on figures from the UN Human Development Report.

Here I assume that China's growth rate will be an average of 7% per year until 2020, and America's to be 3.5% per year until 2020. The 7% rate is achievable for China, which managed to maintain more than that in the past two decades (about 8.2% per year from 1975-2001). 3.5% for the USA may be on the high side though (America's annual growth rate: 2.0%, 1975-2001).

Starting from $5.112 trillion in 2001, China will have ballooned to $19.0012 trillion in 2020 (almost 4 times).

In the same period America will have grown steadily from $9.9289 trillion in 2001 to $18.9778 trillion in 2020.

(In 2019, the year before 2020, America will still be some $410 billion larger than China. For those who are curious, by 2025 China's economy will be some $3 trillion larger than that of the US: $25 trillion versus $22 trillion. $3 trillion is a lot of money today - almost the size of Japan's economy - but this is likely to be worth much less in 2025.)

Chow's projection is thus about right. In 2020, China and the US are worth $19 trillion each.

Interestingly, my calculations show that China's economy, valued at $5 trillion in 2000, will be about $10 trillion in 2010, $14 trillion in 2015, then again almost $20 trillion by 2020, and over $25 trillion in 2025 - essentially quintupling over 25 years. (If growing at 10% annually China - or any other country - could expand its economy by a factor of 8 in just 21 years! I think that's what happened to America after 1865.)

The per capita income of an average Chinese should at least quadruple from 2000 to 2025, provided the population growth rate is kept tightly under control. That brings a standard of living on a par with South Korea or Bahamas today. Already China's population growth is among the slowest in the developing world, lower even than America's.

All these figures are in PPP, in constant 2001 dollars. In nominal GDP America will likely remain larger than China long after 2025 unless there are changes in the exchange rates for the dollar and for the Chinese yuan in the meantime, which is possible.

Chow's calculations are thus correct. I've crunched the numbers from a different source and both projections match.

Of course, nothing ever happens exactly as predicted, especially in economics. Linear projections can look foolish in retrospect. Even with the best statistics, every projection can be delayed - or accelerated - by man-made and natural disasters. But this book does give us an idea of China's economic future.

Whether or not China or the US will be the world's largest economy after 2025 will depend on many factors, one of which will be the size and integration of the European Union.

This book provides a good deal of moderately valuable information about the Chinese economy. It also has large sections of what seem like pieces of an ordinary introductory econ textbook, which will be tedious to anyone who has taken an econ course without being terribly valuable to those who haven't. The book appears fairly thorough and objective, but not very imaginative or insightful.
One point he makes that I found worth remembering is to point out the similarities between Chinese state ownership of enterprises with U.S. University ownership of companies created to commercialize their research. In both cases the owning institution has a mission very different from commerce, but often allows the enterprise to function as a business. Alas, he doesn't explore the incentive structures that make this often work in China but create monopoly-style inefficiencies when most other governments own businesses.

Professor Chow is a distinguished economist who is an elected member of the American Philosophical Society and the former chief of econometrics at Princeton University. His statements carry some weight. The key point of this book may be summarized in this sentence: "Hence the Chinese economy can be expected to generate about the same real GDP as the US economy in 1998 PPP terms in 2020." (p.103)

In other words, China will be an economic superpower rivalling America in 20 years' time.

Barring an unforeseen disaster - like an asteroid from outer space or World War III - Chow's prognostication may turn out right. What does that mean? Well, China will be resuming its former position as an economic superpower which it has occupied throughout history.

The most surprising and controversial part is Chow's contention that China's population is too small (chapter 11). He considers a number of factors in making this odd point, including arguments by Malthus and counter-arguments by Mao, as well as a number of intangibles (like the higher number of intellectual elites available from a larger population base). I think he goes wrong here, because he doesn't seem to have considered one serious fact: most of China is neither arable nor habitable - virtually useless - large though the country may be. What's more, the amount of usable land is getting less by the day, due to desertification from the north. China is bone dry.

Customers who are wondering whether this book is worth the price to invest in would do well to reflect on China's importance on the world stage. China is one-fifth of humanity and is exactly equal to America in territorial size. China has the world's third largest stockpile of nuclear warheads. (The Pentagon believes China's stockpile will quadruple in the next decades fully in line with its economic expansion.) China has a highly developed rocket and ballistic missile technology, and has publicly announced its intention to be the world's third nation to launch astronauts into space (to be realized in late 2003). China is one of the top ten oil producing countries, with larger proven crude oil reserves than America's (the largest in the Fast East - much larger than Indonesia's). China's relations with Muslim countries are excellent, and is probably the only major power to be popular among people of that faith. China has the veto on the Security Council. The WTO recently reported that China overtook Britain in 2002 as the world's fifth largest trader in goods and services, after the US, Japan, Germany and France. If the EU is counted as one unit, China is now the fourth largest trader. And according to the CIA World Factbook, China's economy is already the second largest in Purchasing Power Parity (the fifth largest in nominal GDP), and at $6 trillion it is 13% of the world's total.

Now Chow is telling us that China's rapid growth rate is an average of 7% per year for the next two decades, which is by far the fastest among the major powers (about twice India's, three times America's, and more than four-five times Europe's and Japan's).

In short, China is already a giant today (hardly the "modest" country as described by Bill Emmott of the Economist). People like Margaret Thatcher, Jack Welch and Paul Wolfowitz are already predicting China's rise to superpower status. And the economic transformation taking place there, fully and professionally detailed by Chow, will make it much bigger still. On top of all these, China today is also interesting because it is the oldest civilization among the major powers (America, China, Britain, Russia, Germany, Japan) and by far the biggest of the surviving ancient civilizations: Mesopotamia (Iraq), Egypt, Palestine, Persia (Iran), China, India.

Of course, China's per capita income will remain relatively low for the foreseeable future, but given the size of its population China will be a superpower long before it achieves American levels of income and standards of living - a prospect that is beyond the timeframe of this book.

Overall this book is excellent - serious and credible, without being excessively technical. It fills a big niche, and meets the needs of students, journalists, businessmen, Western observers and analysts alike. All of us should pay attention to the most significant event of the late 20th century and early 21st - the transformation of China's economy - and this book is an authoritative guide. It deserves 6 stars out of 5.