Murray Books

This book is a collection of essays from leading academics/researchers in finance. It is obvious that the authors write on topics where they have made significant contributions. All significant topics in finance are discussed in this book. However, the essays are brief and are intended for interemediate students.

I am not writing a review. I just want to point out that the reveiw you have printed from The NY Times Booklist 9/1/98, if for "First Contact; the Essential Murray Leinster" and not for the video tape "First Contact"

As yet there is no good general introduction to the 18th-century book London trade, and after John Feather's excellent _History of British Publishing_, I knew of no single place to send students interested in the subject before the publication of William Zachs' new book. One of its strengths is the accuracy of its title: it really IS about Murray and the later c18 London book trade, and not simply a portrait of Murray. As a result, it provides the best general introduction I know to the circumstances of retail bookselling and publishing, not just in London but in the British Isles, as well, during the important period when these two trades were in the process of separating, and I think it belongs in every one's institutional collections, as well as in the personal libraries of those interested in the history of the English book trade. My own understanding of the circumstances of London bookselling and publishing of the century has been considerably improved by reading this book.

As are all maths challenges from MAA, the problems in this book take a long time to solve for the average reader. It can be used for polishing up your skills or as extra projects.

Between 1996 and 2002, Fleur Olby illustrated all the articles I wrote for The Observer Magazine. Where her work is at it's very best, and where she stands out from any other plant photographer, is where the plant drifts away in it's abstraction. Invariably people would compliment me by saying my page 'looked' fantastic - and invariably it did because Fleur and the designer had made it so. Fleur, the editor and I would draw up a list of topics to cover over the coming month and we would work independently of each other, she taking the pictures and I writing the words. The first time I swathe pictures taken to accompany the piece was when I bought my copy of The Observer on a Sunday morning. It was a delight and a surprise.
Fleur has just published a collection of plant portraits called simply and aptly 'Fleur'. Quite a few of these pictures first appeared in The Observer, though there are plenty that I have not seen before, and this is the first time I have looked at her work without any connection to my own words. I can see now that I shackled her to the page.
Fleur's flowers often fall like watercolour onto the page, almost slipping away from their outline. The garden is left far behind and the pictures are more akin to looking down the lens of a microscope than swishing through a border. These are plants out of time and place, and locked into their own perpetual strangeness which, of course, they have always had, but which you had failed to notice in among all the gardening.
I am looking at a lisianthus, twisted twisted like a shell. Then there's a bearded iris (also purple - Fleur does purple especially well) whose petals loom, almost sinister, behind the beard that is caught in a patch of light. This small part of the flower - hardly more than a botanical marker in the garden - becomes the spotlit focus of the image and you realise you have never really looked at an iris at all.
I think my favourite picture is of a salvia which, at first glance, is almost a sketch or an impression caught in the wonderful, intense, pale-sky blue. It is not until you look closer and see the tiny hairs all up the plant that you realise this dreamy abstraction has been observed with the exactitude of a rare lepidopterous specimen.
Turn the page and there is a picture titled 'Red Rose Thorns'. These are the blood red thorns of Rosa sericea pteracantha, whose small flowers, born in late April, are white. The thorns are at their most translucently shocking on new growth, so one tends to prune it back in early spring to encourage vigorous new stems.
The downside of this is that the flower buds are formed from the previous seasons wood, so spring pruning removes them. In other words, you sacrifice the flowers for the thorns. To see the thorns - which is the reason I grow this fantastic rose - looking like this in my garden, they must be backlit, so it means looking at them in the evening. So these crimson flanges invariably come packaged with a low sun, weariness at the end of the day, the other familiar plants that accompany this particular bush, and even the cattle in the field the other side of the hedge. Fleur has ruthlessly excluded all of that and taken the plant back to the absolute essence, with it's vicious cleanness of line and shock of colour. It is just it's astonishing self with no history, no future and absolutely no horticulture, pinned to the page.

Monty Don. The Observer Magazine.16th October 2005.

This book will appeal to all aviation buffs. Alex Henshaw, who won the King's Cup in 1938 and later went on to serve as chief test pilot at Castle Bromwich (see his other book, "Sigh for a Merlin"), recounts his various adventures: (1) successfully competing in air racing; (2) touring Europe and Africa with his father, in a de Havilland Leopard Moth; (3) learning to fly the Perceival Mew Gull; and (4) setting a speed record (which stands to this day) from England to Cape Town, South Africa and back (February, 1939). The writing is fresh and engaging, reflecting Henshaw's forceful, determined personality. A keeper!

This was the perfect review tool.The material was condensed and well organized. I attribute my success to the use of this book.

Phil Murray has an entertainingly unique take on many areas of personal development. His English Geordie humour runs through various brief stories and anecdotes, from his many ups and downs in the music business, to his professional experience of running around London in a Superman costume! At the same time, many of the key themes throughout the book will be familiar to readers of contemporary self-help books e.g. you are a spiritual being having a human experience, you are what you think you are, the importance of planning and preparation, positive thinking.

Coming across as likeably eccentric himself, another Murray theme is that "it is okay not to be normal, as defined by society". "Going with the flow" does not necessarily mean doing what everyone else does in order to be successful, Murray dares you to break away from society's conditioning and discover your real self i.e. what we really are, not what we have been told we are through socialization. As with several other areas, the author explores this with considerable depth, intelligence and humour.

The book finishes with 49 clear and positive affirmations to be burnt into one's subconscious e.g. I enjoy being myself, I am interested in others, I balance my skills and challenges, my attention is on the now. Most of these are simple but elsewhere the author's writing is far more profound and sophisticated than many other personal development authors. I like this book.

So there is only one way to tell if we are real Libertarians. This is the book. This book is not radical except to those who are kaffeeklatch Libertarians. As we read this book it clarifies what we were already thinking. It is just nice to see it organized and spoken about. Normally we do not mark up good books but in this case if our high liter does not go dry, we missed something.
One of my favorites is:
As we have seen, police service is not "free"; it is paid for by the taxpayer, and the taxpayer is very often the poor person himself. He may vary well be paying more in taxes for police now then he would in fees to privet, and far more efficient, police companies.

Well if we made it through the book, we are the real things.

If not you still have a chance to be radical and confuse everyone with "A Piece of the Action" by Louis O. Kelso. If you can't find it, then "Democracy and Economic Power: Extending the Esop Revolution Through Binary Economics"

As an audio story listener this is so lovely. Romantic,no violence, a little along the lines of Jane Austen. Just wish it was on CD. Would happily buy it again to keep for ever.

A must listen for all ages.