Hoffman Books

. . .or at least that is what I am told. This probably is a more fun book after you already know these characters from previous adventures. That said, it was wildly funny and silly, although a poor mystery. I do plan on reading more of the books, so obvioulsy the silliness was more of a blessing than a grating characteristic. I liked this more for style than content.

I always finish Kinky's books feeling confused and a bit violated, but I have no idea why. The books are so entertaining although there is not much story - just a mix of insane people (who you just can't tell if they like each other or hate each other), and their often unfortunate lives.

Blast from the Past does give you some insight into the Kinkster's life and you learn things like how he came to live in his fourth floor apartment on Vandam Street, how he left country music to be a P.I., and how he came to know many of his cohorts such as Rambam, Ratso, Chinga and McGovern.

This book, along with other Kinkster books is just plain bizarre and silly!

You get the sense that Kinky needed a change of pace with Blast from the Past, as if even he realized that his previous few novels were almost becoming caricatures of themselves. So he wrote a "prequel", going back in time to the early 1970's in order to bring together the Village Irregulars for the first time, and to detail his beginnings in the private detective world.

As usual, Steve Rambam is all business, Ratso is his typical wisecracking cheapskate self, and McGovern drifts in and out of the plot as a hard-drinking, loud Irishman with little to do. The action begins on Ratso's couch with Kinky in the arms of "Judy", although it is not specified whether we are dealing with Uptown Judy or Downtown Judy from Elvis, Jesus and Coca Cola fame. Abbie Hoffman a.k.a. Barry Freed drifts into the picture, and the mystery of the novel involves someone who is apparently trying to kill either Hoffman, Kinky or Judy. A parallel plot line, which Kinky suspects may be related to the first, involves the appearance of a man Judy believes to be her deceased Vietnam veteran husband.

As in all Friedman books, the plot is just there as an amusing excuse to throw the various characers together for some good-natured fun. It probably has more substance to it than Spanking Watson, (at least we weren't treated to two dozen conversations with a mute cat), but overall I agreed with some of the other reviewers who thought this effort was a little empty. The characers don't get along, so there is little sense of camaraderie, and you get tired of reading about Kinky's agressive appetite for "Peruvian marching powder". I thought the funniest scene was one in which Kinky, getting ready for a date with Judy, unknowingly brushes his "moss" with a toilet brush at McGovern's apartment. I give it 3 stars, an interesting diversion but instantly forgettable.

Man, am I addicted to Kinky's gonzonian books! Look at me, I'm a Jewish Italian former transplant to Aussieland, and what do I like reading? About a sleazeball, down-and-out, retired Texan country-music detective with a cranky cat in the house (is that a house?) and half a puppet on the fridge. This particular novel is actually a prequel - just like the last Star Wars - that answers all your burning questions about those Village [fellows] Kinky hangs around with. Happy now? I shouldn't think so: this is actually a suspenseful tale of murder, mayhem, madness, eroticism, and irrepressible laughter. Kinky, sei in gamba!

I had lost some faith in Kinky Friedman's tales of the Village Irregulars and the "mysteries" that they take on. Most folks noticed that the series was starting to get long on drawl and short on substance about the time the gang was searching for Ratso's mother...however, Friedman had a flash of brilliance when he started pulling out new scenarios for his alter ego.

First was Kinky going back home to Texas to fight the bad buys on the stomping grounds of his youth instead of the mean streets of New York. Then we had an entry featuring Willie Nelson as one of the main characters (Roadkill is still the best of the series, too). Now, in Blast From The Past, Kinky's back on Vandam Street...circa 1979. That's right, a blow to the head sends the Kinkstah's memory banks through the years to his first amateur detective work ever. And, to make things even loonier, counter-culture hero (and real life Friedman pal from back in the day) Abbie Hoffman is the center of much of the action.

For those of you who've never read a Kinky Friedman book this is not a good place to start. By this point in the series it's understood that the reader "gets" Kinky's world and the characters in it. If you're not familiar with the skidmark-covered couch over at Ratso's place or the unusual greeting that they get every time they enter Big Wong's restaurant...well, go back a few books and catch up first. Many of the recurring points of interest in the series have their origins explained in this volume as well, but you have to know what the big deal is about.

The jump back in time also sends the meter of un-PC behavior skyrocketing. The Kinkster is eyebrows-deep in the 'ole Peruvian Marching Powder and has just discovered Jameson's whiskey. It's a high old time (and it opens with Kinky in bed with a strange girl). It's grand fun and proof that there's still plenty of new ground to explore in the series. Or at least plenty of off-color jokes, humorous antecdotes, sex, drugs, and a teensy bit of crime-solving. My faith in this Texas Jewboy is as strong as ever.

Most people taking a course like this use Rudin and this is a reasonable supplement but there is a good bit of errata that should be downloaded from the author's site. Pugh's "Real Mathematical Analysis" is an alternative.

Unfortunately this book is used at many good schools, but it should not be! Given that there are many excellent texts it is hard to understand why this book is chosen so often. The author is very brief with his proofs as though the reader is reviewing the material and not learning it for the first time. On the other hand, he explains some simple topics excessively when it's not at all necessary. I think the reason for the style of this book is that Marsden is really an applied mathematican. I would not use this book for self-study, unless I had to. There are also many errors in the book. It is possible to make use of the book by supplementing it with other books (almost any book on analysis would do!). In short, Marsden does a beautiful job of turning analysis into an ugly subject! Be warned!!

I am using this book to teach myself analysis. Because my mathematical background is limited, I cannot assess what the book is missing, or whether alternative methods of presentation would be more insightful. But in terms of clarity and comprehensibility, the book does very well. The authors write very carefully and are not cryptic; the proofs and examples are well-presented, and I rarely feel lost. The book is rigorous but not, let's say, snobbish. I am learning a lot from it.

This was my favorite book as an undergraduate student and I've taught from it as a professor. It is an excellent geometric approach to analysis. It can even help students who have difficulty with epsilon delta proofs understand the geometric intuition behind them. The construction of the real line at the beginning is daunting for students who aren't clear about set theory and sequences already but a few supplementary materials can help the students out there (see my webpage notes on real analysis for example). The proofs are hidden which makes it a challenge for students to try prove everything themsleves before peeking at them, but they are available. Just remember to tell your students where they are!

As a student I loved the book because it allowed me to learn everything on the metric space level while allowing students who prefer to stay in Euclidean space to do that. Now I am a metric geometer.

Many other reviewers have panned this book. The overall sentiment seems to be that the book is too difficult to follow. Perhaps for them. And, granted, perhaps this is so for many readers. But some students, who are probably majoring in maths or physics and who might be amongst the top in their classes, are likely to appreciate the book.

It is a rigorous explanation of classical analysis. Frankly, for someone who will not major in maths, you are unlikely to need this level of rigour in your understanding and usage of the maths. Even theoretical physicists. But you can regard it as a good part of your maths education. If you have learnt introductory calculus at the level of Apostol or Spivak's books, then that level of rigour is continued here.

The proofs can be quite difficult to follow. It is for good reason that Marsden segregates these into the ends of the chapters. The fact that these proofs are difficult is perhaps misread by some reviewers as a flaw in Marsden's writing. Wrong. Some proofs are inherently difficult, and need a detailed and careful presentation. The Heine-Borel Theorem, for example.

Which is why I find puzzling claims by some reviewers of many errors in the text. Are they referring to simple typos? Or errors in the logic? If the latter, maybe they should cite specific cases. I went through an earlier edition, as a student, and studied carefully most of the proofs. Beyond some typos, I never found any logic errors.

In this book Gabriel is NOT a hero he is always very rude, mean adn cruel to the heroine. He basically raped her in the first love scene (if you could even call it a love scene!) Then when the she gets pregnant he yells at her for it and acts like it's all her fault! So this book was just Gabriel being rude to his wife then apologizing for it. I liked the heroine though. But I cannot see how she ever fell in love with him?! I usually love Samantha James's books but I wanted to throw this book out a window! Then at the end it just kind of cuts off with "I love you" which I didn't really like. I do not recommend this book. Don't waste your money on it.

From the opening pages this book will boil your temper but that is part of its appeal. Gabriel, the second son of the second wife of an earl, has always known his father only loves his firstbon son and late first wife. He always criticized Gabriel and never brought gifts to him as he brought them for his brother Stuart. When his mother dies, an eighteen year old Gabriel leaves to make his fortune in shipping intending never to come home again. All that changes when his brother Stuart is killed in a battle and he is now the Earl's heir and is expected to come home and marry Lady Evelyn his brother's former fiance. Gabriel rebels against anything his father demands and when he meets a poor serving girl, Cassie, in an American barroom he plots to marry her to spite his father. When Cassie's boss threatens to turn her out if she doesn't sleep with Gabriel, she steals his watch in order to run away. When she is caught, Gabriel makes her a deal that if she marries him he will drop charges and let her live in comfort the rest of her life. She agrees but on the terms that it is in name only. They marry and travel to England where Cassie finds out that Gabriel is using her to hurt his father. She witnesses several accounts of the harmful relationship between father and son and prays for healing. Before long, Gabriel's desire for Cassie turns their marriage into a real one and they become lovers. Gabriel is a jealeous lover and is distrustful of even his best friend. Soon it becomes obvious that someone is out to kill Cassie after she has several near misses and Cassie suspects either Gabriel or his father may regret her presence. However, Cassie has wormed her way into both men's hearts and now they must uncover an evil plot against her and try to mend a relationship between themselves. Cassie now also carrier their heir.

Some readers may be turned off by Gabriel's treatment of Cassie which at times borders on abuse. But, in understanding the character and the mental abuse he suffered as a child, you can understand and forgive him if he can turn his behavior around and that is exactly what happens. The passion and real feeling emotions and actions of the pair make it intriguing and holds you till the end. Great.

Normally, I like Samantha James' books. The "Perfect" series (Perfect Bride, Perfect Groom, Perfect Hero) was fun. This, however, is... well, let's just say that the "hero" of this book rapes his wife, repeatedly, yet she loooooves him and somehow convinces herself that he's really a good man, way down deep inside (way, way, WAY down), despite the fact that he treats her with contempt consistently and did I mention RAPES her? Ugh. The one thing I did enjoy about this book was confirming that my psyche isn't warped enough to enjoy it.

This is the third novel by SJ I have read. I also read "A Perfect Bride" (very good) and "His Wicked Promise" (so-so). I like this author for the most part as she is very good at being detailed in her plot lines and descriptive in her characters. Unfortunately, this book did not work for me at all. It appears this is one of her earlier works - around 1994 - about the fourth book she did - and it was not one of her best.

The plot wasn't bad - poor American girl working as a bar maid as all her family is dead or abandoned her meets up with rich, wealthy and handsome Brit who needs to find a wife to take back home. Our hero Gabriel picks our heroine Cassie as she is all that his father would hate and since Gabriel and his father detest one another - he chooses the worst bride possible. A dream come true for Cassie as she needs food, a home and clothes - until she gets to England and not only does the father dislike her but, her new husband Gabriel embarrasses her, treats her poorly and reminds her constantly of her low birth origins. Thus....a dream turns into a nightmare.

It was frustrating that page after page Gabriel remains the same cold, aloof, self-fish and nasty man he was from day one. I kept waiting for him to slowly thaw and become the warm, kind and thoughtful man he could be but, alas...it wasn't until the last few pages of the book he finally redeemed himself. Once in a great while he would get a normal thought in his head to be kind or nice but, he even talked himself out of that. Regardless of his poor upbringing...he should have had the common sense not to treat everyone like dirt. Gabriel clearly finds Cassie attractive and she slowly wins over people like her neighbors, the local high ranking duchess in the city, Gabriel's friends, etc.. Even with all of her growth over time, it is still not enough for Gabriel to see her as anything but, an attractive wench he can bed since she is now his wife. A few times he even forced her into the sexual encounter - mind you - she always gave in - but, he began some passages with force and that wasn't appealing at all. One reader called it rape and as much as I don't want to agree - some scenes did come close to that. No hero of mine would go that far...hopefully not yours either.

Cassie certainly had spunk and grit but, she often caved when it came to Gabriel. She stood up for herself, kept herself in high regard most of the book but...sometimes, she lost her confidence and seemed weak willed. Like when she needed to tell him she was pregnant and they were both shocked---ya, that happens with dozens of sex scenes!!!

It was more than irritating that he constantly called her "Yank" - even in heated love scenes. This was not sexy, romantic or appealing for a hero. One passage he made it sound like he didn't like her name thus...he rarely used it.

Cassie in turn would yell at him, tell him she hated and detested him and even when he showed her little tenderness or kindness, she still found a way to fall in love with him. Why? Who knows? Guess since he gave her a house, clothes and a new life - he looked more appealing to her even when he wasn't very nice. His friend Christopher was much more appealing but, alas...she never fell for him.

The story line of someone trying to kill Cassie so, Gabriel could wed another was not all that creative or interesting either - seemed tossed in there to keep things moving. The mystery of the possible killer was a weak point for me.

As expected, the end of the book cleaned everything up and everyone suddenly saw the light of their bad ways and all worked out neat and tidy. Too tidy if you ask me. I could not root on these characters as they just didn't work for me - I never felt they were meant to be soul mates. They met and married for all the wrong reasons. I just didn't buy that this love story would bloom and last forever. I simply wished the story would be done halfway through the book.

This author is good and I'll look to her later works to find more enjoyment from her writing. This one was a bomb.

Two questions:

1. Did Rake School drop the requirement for a basic class in where babies come from, or is there some other reason why a grown man who's been sharing his wife's bed would throw a hissy fit when she becomes pregnant by him?

2. Is it just me, or is it not that romantic to watch someone devote himself full-time to self-pity and petty vindictiveness, directed against the helpless?

I usually find Samantha James enjoyable, but this was excruciating. If there's anything romantic about relentless verbal abuse and humiliation punctuated by tumbles in the hay , this is the book that proves the rule.

Adina Hoffman and her husband, Peter Cole, engage in provocateur activity and utilize racist imagery in their confrontation with a local yeshiva. Their concern? The trimming of a tree. This was a sad disappointment to me, as when I began reading this book, I was impressed with its humanistic glimpses into the varied people she lives among. I certainly applaud any efforts to understand different points of view, including Arab viewpoints. Might things be improved if Israeli Jews took an interest in feeling the plight of the Arab world? In learning Arabic? Sounded great so far.

But this impression of open-mindedness quickly evaporated in her offensive usage of anti-semitic imagery to describe an orthodox Jewish grounds keeper, despite her warm parallel portraiture of an Arab gardener. The Orthodox Jew trimmed a tree - which deserved an onslaught. Yet, one other tree in her neighborhood was trimmed and another chopped down - why did she take forceful action against the orthodox Jews, and not the other two tree trimming episodes? They single out the yeshiva as the one institution that apparently has no place in the varied neighborhood in which they reside. There was no reason that Peter Cole had to speak harshly to the orthodox groundskeeper, who was clearly an unwell individual whom the yeshiva was helping out. Hoffman does not merely observe and record this antagonistic episode - she provokes it. She does not seek real contact or ponder the point of view of the yeshiva members. After claiming to promote an understanding of different viewpoints, this is unfortunate indeed. Coexistance includes all peoples, and excludes the use of racist language or interpersonal provocation.

The yeshiva became a dumping ground for strangely misplaced outrage that could better serve real injustices, like terror. A neighbor's wife was carjacked and murdered, yet Ms Hoffman expresses no objection to terror. She does object to efforts at its prevention.

Following a European holocaust and expulsions of ancient Jewish communities from Arab lands, the state of Israel has indeed offered incentives for Jews to settle in Israel. Ms Hoffman calls this racist. But if she is so concerned about racism, why does she not recognize the Eurpean and Arab antisemitism that led to the above? Why does she fan its flames in the yeshiva confrontation? She describes herself as an "interloper" when entering East Jerusalem. Here, she buys into what should be recognized as Arab racism. That Arab culture claims geographical areas to be purely Arab is clearly racist.

When recording landscapes and when actually talking to and listening to people, Ms Hoffman's work is engaging, though more stream of consciousness than factual. But when she does NOT take the effort to get to know people, stereotype quickly fills the void, both in her contact with the Arab and orthodox Jewish population.

Ms Hoffman appears to be in the service of a revisionist intellectual machine that props up Arab claims while minimizing Jewish claims - and Jewish suffering - both historical and current. Her biases aside, one begins to understand that Adina Hoffman's views are low on research and involve much personal projection. It is politicized poetry, not research. It is projection, not communication.

It's great writing, it uses many wonderful words and sentences. Although after about the 13th (to be exact) page, it seems to become unimportant. She is talking about how her purse got stolen, and then she recieved it back, with everything but the money. Not only this so early in the book, but she tells who she thought did it, and who she thought returned it, and how she still isn't sure to this day...blah blah blah

I just found this really annoying. Sorry Adina..

I read a review of Ms. Hoffman's book in Passionfruit, a travel magazine and that's why I bought it. At first I thought it was slow going, but hang in there, readers. Adina Hoffman is lapidary in style, and there are many gems in this tour of one neighborhood in Jerusalem. Understated, introverted but poetic, as others have said. Very much worth buying.

Ms. Hoffman is admittedly an eloquent writer, eager to show us the virtues of being above a "tribal" identity in contemplating the varied people that she lives among. But being more open minded than your group identity does not mean degrading the group from which you hail and seeing no wrong in anyone else. It means applying humanistic standards to all people equally, wherein there is no place for prejudiced language against any group, including yours.

But that is not what this author did. Overweight Arab men in Jordan are warmly referred to as round-bellied but an overweight orthodox Jew is contemptuously dubbed potbelly. She shows defferent respect for Arab/Muslim codes of modesty on a visit to Jordan but shows contempt for orthodox Jewish ones (which are actually more lenient than Muslim codes). And although she ponders the problems and feelings of Palestinian refugees from the war of 1948 (without doing much research), she has no room to consider the effect of the forced displacement of Jewish communities from Arab lands in the 1940's and 1950's that may play a part in some of her neighbors' difficult lives, one of whom committed suicide. She portrays an unattractive local Arab gardener warmly, but she refers to an unattractive orthodox Jewish caretaker as an "ape" and as "monkeyish". Here the author plays the chic, leftist-Israeli game - toying with antisemitic imagery in order to denigrate orthodox Jews. A game both dangerous and reprehensibly unethical.

She ponders the condescension of hiring an Arab gardener, Ahmed, to do menial chores, never asking him how he feels about it. But when she sees an orthodox Jew performing menial gardening chores for a yeshiva, what a flip flop. She degrades a local yeshiva for (presumably) housing former prisoners and giving odd jobs to a local "misken" or pitiable person. There are indeed Israeli yeshivos, or places of higher Jewish learning, that have in-prison and post prison rehabilitation programs. This positive contribution to Israeli society has been recognized by the Israeli government in its "father of prisoners" awards bestowed on various yeshivas. As usual, she gives no proofs of her assumptions, but if this yeshiva indeed serves former prisoners, or other young men who have problems and probably do not therefore have winning personalities, what is wrong with that? Why does she treat the yeshiva with such contempt for what has been recognized as a positive and largely successful act of charity? Oh she doesn't like their front yard either, though she was part of some neighborhood gardening rennovations, how about including the yeshiva in that? Because for her to consider the charitable acts the the yeshiva is doing right before her eyes, or to approach them as equal neighbors, would challenge her us versus them mentality. Then who would she have to safely dump the reservoirs of political and social frustrations that she admits to upon?

Neither can Ms. Hoffman bring herself to criticize the Arab world, which she keeps at a safe distance, and thus open to her poetic projections. She goes to Jordan to interact with an Arab family, in and out in a brief afternoon, but how about getting to know the East Jerusalem population? Oh she longs to, and goes about it by looking up land registries with few skittish interactions with East Jerusalem Arabs. Her claims of the awkwardness of it all don't ring true, she is confident when it suits her, she can provoke confontational episodes when she wants.. Perhaps her hesitation is because the minute she gets too close to seeing faults within the Arab world that she doesn't want to see, she backs off fast. For example, When an Arab journalist charmingly tells her how sorry he was that no, he could not speak to her since she is an Israeli Jew and Arafat had banned contact between Arab journalists and Israeli Jews, she doesn't flinch. Why didn't the author evince any personal objection to Arafat's tyrannical blocking of freedom of speech? But, here we go again with her boiling over on safe ground - dumping on the orthodox Jews: she assumes (again, not having spoken with them) that the orthodox Jews who are gathering books from a collection left on the street have no intention of reading them. How horrid that THEY lack literary freedom.

She gets upset about the trimming of a local tree (by an orthodox Jew), but glosses over the terrorist murder of a neighbor's wife (but that was done by an Arab).

Considering that Ms. Hoffman is quite able to be critical when it suits her, friendly when it suits her, why all this bias? Fear, perhaps. Because to really come to grips with the serious faults that lie within the Arab world and that threaten us world wide would be too overwhelming, too much to handle, too much of a pholosophical shift. Stay (philosophically) safe: get mad at the Jews, gloss over the Arabs.

Unlike her fellow Jerusalemite, David Horovitz, Hoffman knows how to poetically render the city of lights. She is a fine craftswoman, might well have been or become a fine poet.

"Hunting Warbirds" paints the picture of a world few of us have traveled. I'm not talking about the deserted, frozen shores of Greenland, but the inner sanctum of the realm of warbird salvage. Living here are wealthy collectors, skilled restorers and daring pilots, each with a unique perspective and inner driving force. It's a small world that those of who attend airshows and read "Air Classics" don't often get to see in detail. Hoffman walked in their ranks and absorbed enough of their passion to coherently relate it. He lived though the same privations and fed off the same energy that keeps those die-hard warbird salvors working 18 hours a day, seven days a week at a remote recovery site. For me, it was a rare view of a world I will never be privileged to experience. Some reviewers have criticized Hoffman for technical errors. I suppose they are valid critiques, but I really think they miss the point. The book is more about the people than the planes. Though you certainly can't separate the planes from the warbird fanatics, Hoffman gives us a sense of what makes those guys tick. I for one enjoyed the hell out of it. Given the look we get, only the most techno-pedantic could fail to forgive the author for a few errors. That said, I hold back one star because so much more could have been included. Instead of a wall mural, we got a small canvas. After ingesting "Hunting Warbirds" I hunger for more.

I think this book was terriffic. Of course there are going to be some mistakes in the technical areas of the planes...the author never claimes to be an expert of every part of every plane that is covered...get over it. The book lets everyone have a small taste of a hobby (or addiction) that isn't available to eveyr person. I'd love to own a ME109, but can't. I like to read about the salvage and saving of these wonderful machines, and I think this book does a marvelous job of doing that. If you are reading to get a 110% account of airplane facts, buy a manual. If you want a story of a dying part of American history and culture, read this book.

I thought this a great book. It seems that a new generation of writers that often publish in the outdoors magazines like Backpacker or Outside are discovering the WW II eccentrics who are well known to us, their sons and nephews, as being the aviators and mechanics of the past who won the air war over Japan and Germany. As a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War, these men were our former mentors and role models. We went where we were sent and didn't question the duty or the reality of it all. Later, after finishing my tour in the Army, I flew the bush in Alaska, and this book reminded me of my early days on the North Slope, flying a Bell Jet Ranger with a seismic crew in the Colville River Delta. I was the furthest west chopper pilot during those spring months of 1969, and about the third youngest Army pilot to arrive on this edge of the Arctic Ocean. We flew around Prudhoe Bay and astonished many of the old bush pilots with our know-how and amount of flight time at such a young age. The B-29 story made me reminisce about those months up there, when anything could happen and did. Lot of fun and a lot of misery! Somehow, one has to go through these extremes in a swashbuckling manner to relate to these early aviation stories before GPS and much safe devices came about today. Good reading and a great young writer is Carl Hoffman.

Piston-engined aircraft of WWII are among the most fascinating and important artifacts of the 20th century, part of some of the most intriguing history of war and humanity that affected millions directly and indirectly. It is not surprising that they evoke passion and obsession.
This book attempts to describe the passion and obsession, but its disjointed, episodic and disintegrated form works against it and the technical errors are annoying. Reviewer Collins (see his review) correctly identifies the core problem: the author does not seem to have considered his audience(s). If he's writing for knowledgeable aviation enthusiasts, his lack of depth, poor research and many errors are a turnoff. If he's writing for non-flyers, he doesn't provide enough background information on the many wonderful flight museums and collectors around the world to frame the subject adequately (his superficiality about, say, Kermit Weeks, is a huge disappointment, as just one glaring example). If he's writing for readers who enjoy literature, his lack of polish is a disappointment--much of the book reads like a first draft. It seems that Hoffman's approach to flying is skewed to the gee-whiz and away from the magnificent, mysterious realities of aviation.
Offering credentials like AIR & SPACE and SMITHSONIAN doesn't induce confidence in the reader. Both these publications often use materials from staff or stringers that are deeply disappointing and too often read like the work of somewhat talented amateurs, matched by editorial positions that seem to be issued--without justification--ex cathedra. If Hoffman had written for AVIATION WEEK or FLIGHT JOURNAL one could be sure of its quality.
If some genuinely competent pilot-writer could approach this subject--someone like, say, Walter Boyne or Richard Bach--it would result in an important historical document with breadth, depth and authenticity. Such a work is urgently needed. Sadly, HUNTING WARBIRDSA is not that book.

My immediate enthusiasm for this story waned pretty quickly, under the influence of Hoffman's many errors of fact, so disappointing from one with his aviation credentials. Such obvious and simple errors, which should have yielded to even the most superficial research (You're standing there in front of the engineýJust count the cylinders, fer Chrissakes!), cast a nagging doubt over everything else he has to say. And why the hokey cloak-&-dagger act concerning the obsessive collector "somewhere in the midwest"? The Walter A. Soplata Collection in Newbury, Ohio was written up in Jon Allen's "Aviation and Space Museums of America",
and has been known among warbird buffs throughout the world for more than a quarter-century!

Used this book as an undergraduate... hated it... I kept using a little thin old edition of "Complex Variables and Applications" by Churchhill to actually teach math using english.... Ironically the instructor who was teaching out of his notes followed churchhills presentation closer then this text.

The treatment of this subject in this text is just so horrid for a FIRST LOOK AT COMPLEX THEORY. No elegance to it what so ever...

I used an earlier edition of this text as an instructor 20 years ago. The students in my class at the time were equally divided among the fields of mathematics, physics, and engineering. The book proved to be quite useful for all of them. Marsden skillfully strikes a balance between the needs of math majors preparing for graduate study and the needs of physics and engineering students seeking applications of complex analysis.

The book is clearly written and well-organized, with plenty of examples and exercises. My only significant criticism of the first edition was the author's tendency to label many examples of contour integration as theorems. Technically, there is nothing wrong this, but I found that some of my students tended to memorize the statements of these "theorems" rather than focus on the methods of integration discussed (for example, "Pac-Man" integrals with branch cuts along rays other than the positive real axis). Nonetheless, this is a fine text that has--not surprisingly--continued to be widely used for over two decades.

The book reveals complex analysis as a very elegant and lovely branch of mathematics. The level of rigour is not that of Marsden's other book, Elementary Classical Analysis. Instead, Basic Complex Analysis can be usefully read by non-maths majors, especially those in physics and engineering.

Key ideas are well covered. Starting with the Laurant series, which generalises the Taylor series. Then, from this, the idea of contour integration is examined. Giving rise to the Residue Theorem and the winding number. All because the only term that does not integrate to 0 is 1/z, which gives the complex log and its imaginary argument is the only thing left. So simple and powerful. Amazing that an essentially arbitrarily intricate contour integral can be given by the residues at the enclosed poles! Yet the text's derivation should get straightforward to follow for most readers.

If you are going onto advanced physics, like quantum electrodynamics, then this theorem is used extensively.

The book also covers important subsequent ideas. Especially conformal mapping and the Schwartz-Christoffel transformation. The treatment of conformal mapping, though, is only a hint of the richness of analysis available here.

The numerous problems are also good for the student to tackle.

When I first started with this book, I was not a fan. However, the book grew on me over time. Marsden and Hoffman do a very good job of blending both theoretical and computational aspects of complex analysis. They do a very good job of motivating and explaining the proofs, and they do not leave out any details (this is both good and bad - it can distracting, but as long as you pay attention, you will never get lost). The illustrations in the text are for the most part illuminating and useful, and the worked examples at the end of each section are not bad as well.

I did have a few minor problems, though. While many of the exercises are good, some of them seemed rather trivial. The chapter on conformal mapping could use some work. The binding on mine started to come apart by the end of the semester, although that may have been my fault.

This is the second book that I have read beside the Vector Calculus by Marsden and Hoffman. This book rushes you through with an introductory chapter and go right into the heart of complex analysis. The author assumes you to have a great professors that can explain things in detail when you can't quite understand what is written in the text. Unfortunately I did not have a great instructor.

The examples of the book are quite simple, compare to some end of section problems.

Overall this book has no surprises as it is quite dry, got bored from reading it. If it was not a required text book for a 3rd year complex analysis course, i wouldn't recommend it to anyone. There are many other books out there that are better written.

I have made 8 or 9 of the recipes thus far and they all have been relatively easy to prepare, healthy, and satisfying flavorful. As a result of this cookbook, I use my slow cooker much more frequently that I had originally thought I would. I have given this cookbook as a gift a few times, also. Two thumbs up for Mable Hoffman--she has managed to put together innovative, original recipes that taste good and are good for you.

Love her crockery books. I made a Scandivian Pot Roast last night with little or no effort. It was delicious. I have enjoyed many recipes from this book and would recomend it to everyone.

For my fellow foodies that are thinking, "you have got to be kidding" please keep reading and keep an open mind. Even though my favorite cookbook is "The Professional Chef" by the CIA, I still use this one to assist me in determining timing and liquid proportions for making dinners without hovering around the kitchen.

If are a busy mom that wants to put a healthy meal on the table every night this book will become an indispensable addition to your library. The recipes were devised using standard supermarket ingredients but you can easily doctor them up if you wish, I do. Each recipe gives a nutritional breakdown including calories, carbohydrates, protein, total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium.

The recipe section is divided as follows:
1. Soups and Chili
2. Chicken
3. Turkey
4. Beef
5. Pork and Lamb
6. Wraps and Sandwiches
7. Beans and Grains
8. Vegetables
9. Desserts and Accompaniments

The most surprising recipe in this book for me was for a roasted chicken with rosemary and garlic, in the slow cooker. I must admit that I was dubious that this would work. However, it works fine, the chicken browns and cooking doesn't heat up the kitchen. If you want the chicken browner, slide it under the broiler for a few minutes before serving. This method works so well that once I taught it to a friend of mine she no longer buys the supermarket rotisserie chickens that she used to rely on.

The author has a nice method in this book that uses foil packet and vegetables that has come in very handy for me. After preparing one of the author's recipes I have used the method to make a lot of the dishes that I would have previously made in the oven in parchment.

There are a couple of nice factors that result from using a slow cooker that I find to be preferable to using the standard stove or oven methods:
1. you don't have to be home to cook.
2. you don't heat up your kitchen in the summer.
3. you can cook without adding extra fat making the meal healthier.
4. you don't release gas into your home (assuming you have a gas cook top and/or oven) increasing the indoor air pollution in your home.

If you want healthy meals for your family, and are not that familiar with the ins and outs of slow cooking, you will find this to be a useful book.

I've enjoyed all the recipes I've made from this cookbook so far. One nice thing about this cookbook is that it has lots of recipes for wraps, which you won't find in most slow-cooker cookbooks.

In response to some of the other reviews, I don't think this book is particularly "gourmet". I've always been able to find all the ingredients and most are not really that exotic.

The book avoids the typical "add a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup" for the most part, which is a nice change. Some of the recipes call for a thickener when it really should be optional; I prefer broth-y sauces to gravies. Omitting this step will save even more calories.

Overall, these are not extremely low in calories and fat, but you shouldn't need to eat big portions of them to feel satisfied, either.

Most of the recipes had long lists of ingredients. The recipes didn't sounded enticing. I love cookbooks but I returned this one!

... [bad] maps and instructions. Stupid jokes in place of much-needed information. Lacking coverage on all too many places. And worst, advertisement for every other book in the series at the opening of the section on each country.

... .

Stick to Lonely Planet. Far, far better than this junk.

First of all...If you are going to any of the western European countries then narrow your research by buying Lets Go: WESTERN Europe, 2002. This review will be more specifically for that book.

This book is a necessity for any independent trip to Europe. It covers everything from lodging, restaurants, what to do, sample itineraries, language guide, city maps, culture and history. A very thick and well researched book...but to really nail down your trip before you go you must bite the bullet and couple this book with at least one other if not two other books. First is Rick Steves Best of Series. Either choose his best of europe or best of the individual country you plan to visit. Rick's book complements the let's go series by being picky...he covers only the places which he considers worthy; and while this may miss many worthy places you are assured of hitting the top spots. Use 'lets go' to find the other out of the way spots. The other book to pick up is the DK writers Eyewitness series, and once again you can choose either Eyewitness Europe or Eyewitness of the country you choose. These are great books because they show you so many pictures of the places to visit that you can see for yourself if it looks like the type of place you would like to go. All three books are worth their weight in gold when you arrive in Europe fully prepared with your itinery completely planned.

I know this combo is expensive (way cheaper here than in your local bookstore...saves 25 bucks) but when you are spending a fortune going to europe an extra 50 bucks in books will help make every minute count. Instead of wasting an hour every morning trying to decipher what to do you will be halfway through your tour of the local dungeon at a hidden castle you would never have known about without these books...Good luck and happy travels!

My friend and I have used Let's go Europe three times.
The guide is highly reliable as regards lodgings and instructions about transportation and important sights to see. Yes, I admit sometimes the hostel was not as clean and spotless and there were some mistakes, that is turn left when it was right. But when you really want to travel budget (I live in a South american country so I MUST do it this way) it is excellent.
Rick Steve's is wonderful but too expensive per day for us!!.

Let's Go is THE guidebook for cheap traveling, especially for students. It's secret? It's written by students, mainly for students...It's strength is that it has a lot of truly budget accomodations listed -- hostels, etc. -- in practically every city in Europe. The main weakness? Because it is put together by students, who by definition are amateurs, the writing can sometimes be weak, the info can be out of date or wrong, and the reviews of lodging and sights are incredibly uneven. (For example, when I used Let's Go almost exclusively for a 3-month Europe trip, some of their $10-25/night budget accomodations listed were fantastic -- but others were dumps unworthy of a listing in any guidebook). The problem is that, unlike a Lonely Planet or a Rick Steves guidebook, which are written by professionals, Let's Go has had hundreds of writers over the years, with students writing about one country but not all the others...If you are unlucky enough to go to a country reviewed by Mountain Man Jack, for example, and he doesn't care about a lack of air conditioning, lumpy beds and smelly rooms, and fails to mention these items, you are out of luck. All in all, though, a great resource for people who need truly budget accomodations, with lots of good maps and other tips... I've personally outgrown this guidebook, having moved on to Rick Steves, who focuses not on the cheapest possible budget but on getting the most possible out of your trip...($50-$100 day vs. the $25-$50 that Let's Go specializes in).

Let's Go is THE guidebook for cheap traveling, especially for students. It's secret? It's written by students, mainly for students...It's strength is that it has a lot of truly budget accomodations listed -- hostels, etc. -- in practically every city in Europe. The main weakness? Because it is put together by students, who by definition are amateurs, the writing can sometimes be weak, the info can be out of date or wrong, and the reviews of lodging and sights are incredibly uneven. (For example, when I used Let's Go almost exclusively for a 3-month Europe trip, some of their $10-25/night budget accomodations listed were fantastic -- but others were dumps unworthy of a listing in any guidebook). The problem is that, unlike a Lonely Planet or a Rick Steves guidebook, which are written by professionals, Let's Go has had hundreds of writers over the years, with students writing about one country but not all the others...If you are unlucky enough to go to a country reviewed by Mountain Man Jack, for example, and he doesn't care about a lack of air conditioning, lumpy beds and smelly rooms, and fails to mention these items, you are out of luck. All in all, though, a great resource for people who need truly budget accomodations, with lots of good maps and other tips... I've personally outgrown this guidebook, having moved on to Rick Steves, who focuses not on the cheapest possible budget but on getting the most possible out of your trip...($50-$100 day vs. the $25-$50 that Let's Go specializes in).

I see that most of the complaints are about there not being any vb code. Granted, that is a reasonable complaint, but this book covered so much that other books haven't touched! I am amazed at how much I have learned from this book! I am finally excited about .NET instead of dazed and confused! Even if you know the general stuff, you need this book. I learned how to do things that I didn't know were even possible! This is the very first multi-author wrox book that I have given a good rating...you guys got this one right!

Do not buy this book if you are a VB.Net programmer. It is more for the C# programmer. Many of the examples are in C#. It should be titled ado.net for C# programmers. It does cover the background of ADO.NET but if you are looking for examples that will fit into your program, do not look here. I wish I had gone to a book store to review the book before making a purchase. WROX books are ok, but stay away from this one.

Many of the chapters in this book was really good, but a few things I didn't like :

* Not a word on concurrency!?!?!? I bought the book to get some thoughts on .Net concurrency strategies, but they completely avoided that subject.

* Did the authors of this book communicate at all during the writing of the book? A lot of things was brought up two or more times in different chapters. Propably the last time I buy a book where each chapter was written by a different author.

/Per Hultqvist

This book is not as good as Microsoft's ADO.NET book. The worst part is that WROX press does not have the source code for this book. So if you buy this book be prepared to do alot of typing.

Although this book lacks real world examples, it provides complete reference for ADO.NET, and this book has examples in both VB.Net and C#.
For ADO.NET beginners to start to write code in ADO.NET, this book is not enough. This book is for developers who already have some ADO.NET experience, and need some information about specific method or property. --Reviewed by Richard X.

This book is great and the bonus CD that it comes with however you would have to buy the software but I really like this product and I will be buying the software.

I designed my wedding invitations using this book. I have almost no artistic talent, so I had my doubts. But this book is filled with so many great ideas and simple instructions that I was able to put together a beautiful design in an afternoon.
I wound up with invitations that were more original (and much less expensive) than anything I could've bought at the stationery story.
Since then, I've given this book to five newly engaged friends--they're thrilled!

This is just a teaser to get you to buy the more expensive book. The accompanying cd has almost nothing on it, just a few borders and pictures. Fonts are supposed to be available for download from the website, but they offer nothing substantially different from the Word fonts. A waste of time and money.

Now, I'm just a dude... metrosexual maybe, but still just a dude. So I don't know my @$$ from my elbow when it comes to making invitations. But this book made everything very accessible. I see some complaints about the need for additional software, but I found I could implement a lot of the suggestions using apps that I already had on my computer.

Bottom line: Friendly, well-written and full of ideas.

They should have added to the title, "With our software that you can purchase seperately." There's a cd included, big deal, just gives you a taste of what you can buy. I ended up downloading a program for free to make my invitations. There is some info on paper, styles, etc. that may be helpful, but oh, why am I trying to be nice? The title is misleading and this was a waste of money.