This book has very nice color pictures of the animals. It is not just a reference book. It has more detail about the Invertebrates (distinctive characters, range, habitat, life history, interactions with other species, economic importance ...etc.) It really fulfills the curiosity of the person who is interested in the marine invertebrates.

This book, though having a publication year of 1980, is still absolutely the best compilation of information about invertebrate animals that are found along the California coast. Many of the animals included in the book have geographic ranges that extend well to the north and the south of California, so this book is useful to anyone who lives, visits, or works along the west coast of North America.

This is not a book of taxonomic keys, like Light's Manual. It is, rather, a book that provides a summary of the biology and ecology of invertebrates of the west coast. The authors provide lists of the best research literature for each animal (up through 1980), as well as photographs and line drawings that show what the animals look like.

This is not a field book, per se, but copies of this book are found on the shelves of most marine biological laboratories in the world, and on the shelves of most invertebrate zoologists who have visited the west coast of the USA.

A professor of mine once said, "That is a 'big boy' book." And, as books on invertebrates go, he is right.

This book is well worth the price!

Intertidal Invertebrates of California is one of the well written book on the invertebrates that live off the cost of California. The picture of the invertebrates are amazing along with the through explanation of them. If you are a person who wants to know about marine life, you will love this book.

This book has many practical insights. Eating is not just a physical problem but emotional and spiritual. So many programs out there overemphasize the physical and are incapable in addressing other components that cause us to overeat. Actually, no book is the answer but God himself is the answer. We can look to him to satisfy our needs so we don't eat over them. God has used this book as a tool in my life. I love the journaling and praying suggestions and use them almost everyday. Another key has been getting trigger foods out of my house completely. Too much temptation otherwise. I have a total of 175 pounds to lose (I have lost 34 of those pounds since March 2001) and I am confident that the Lord will bring me to goal. I had so much shame before because of the way I was. Now I have hope for a better today and tomorrow. I know there will be challenges along the way, but with these practical tools in my hand, I will will be able to conquer those challenges and learn from them by the grace of God. ...

The Step Forward Diet is powerful,& life-changing and gives in detail everything you need to not only loose weight permanently, but to finally rid yourself of the symptoms associated with weight gain (i.e. guilt, shame, blame). Julie Morris expertly writes from personal experience how she allowed God to be the source of her strength to overcome a life-long battle of weight gain. This is NOT your typical weight loss book, it is a road map, and a personal guide which shows you step by step how your success can be achieved by applying 12 Biblically based principles to your everyday life. The principles outlined in Julie Morris' book are profound enough to be used in every area of your life where God's guidance is needed, but simplistic enough that application of these principles can begin immediately. I highly recommend The Step Forward Diet to ANYONE who wants to end the cylce of weight gain-weight-loss-weight-gain and allow God to do what He does best, take full control. This book WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE! God bless.

The Step Forward Diet is an amazing book for ANYONE who wants to finally get rid of the not just the weight but the symptoms attached with being overweight (i.e. the guilt, the shame, the blame). And what's incredible about The Step Forward Diet is it's step-by-step plan for allowing GOD to be the source of strength and power to achieve your desired result. This is NOT your typical weight loss book. The 12 steps outlined in Julie Morris' book are applicable to every area of our lives where God's intervention is needed. Read this book and then allow God to do His job. YOU WILL BE BLESSED!

...if you are going to Turkey, and you're only going to get one book about the language, this is the one I'd recommend.

My oldest son is marrying a Turkish girl in Istanbul, and while we're all going to join them there for the wedding, I'm trying to learn enough of the language to be able to talk a little, and understand a bit. My second son just wants to get by, my third son is somewhere in between. We are all using this book!

For me, it has been a starter book (though In Flight Turkish was my first and best, since it had a CD to help me comprehend the spoken word). For my two younger sons, it has been a way to learn the essentials for it seems if you are going to another country, you should be able to say some basic things in the language of the country. Each of them has their own, to stick in a pocket or backpack and carry around, stateside and in Turkey.

This book is small (maybe 1/2 inch thick, 6" x 4" in size (or so) and structured in a way even a (brilliant) ten year old finds easy.

A great beginner's book, a getting by book, a getting around book.

I have this book, and it's the best purchase I ever made! It's very simple and direct in its format, and has a really excellent explanation of how to pronounce the words and letters. In fact, of all the Turkish language books I've tried out, this one explains the pronounciation the best.
It focuses on only what is needed to know, if you plan to visit Turkey. If you need a book that will get you started, but don't want something that makes the language more in-depth than you need for your preliminary study -- this is the book to have! Plus, it's really small, so you'll be able to carry it with you in your purse or backpack or briefcase with ease.

My husband (who is Turkish) and I agree that this is the perfect little phrase book to use when I get stuck trying to remember just the right question. With this little book I will be able to ride the bus, go to market, and do other everyday tasks when we move to Turkey in a few monthes without having to carry around several dictionaries all the time. Not only does it have a very easy to use layout and many vocabulary words, but it also has many questions and (most importantly!) several common answers. A really great book for anyone traveling to Turkey!

This helpful, easy-to-read book is a great reminder that our and our family's personal safety is our own responsibility. There are many, many ideas for ways to improve your safety and that of your children; ideas and behaviors that can, with a little practice, become second nature.

This book will help you become a proactive participant in your safety and the safety of those you love.

Keepsafe collects realistic, non-frightening safety tips in one, easy-to-read book. The format is perfect for our "time-crunched" lives; each chapter is only a few pages long.

Each idea and suggestion is understandable and logical for our everyday lives. The authors' experience and backgrounds in public safety are impressive, and while I'm certain that they have dealt with safety issues we can't begin to comprehend, this collection of safety practices is not overly complex or difficult. In fact, the tone is nicely conversational.

This book is an interesting, practical, understandable and all-encompassing guide to being safer and keeping our families safer. Thank you to the 2 dedicated safety professionals for putting it all in one place.

The unfortunate thing about "common sense is that it's so common it is often taken for granted. That is precisely what this book will prevent. I don't know how many times it happened but as I read this book I found myself repeatedly saying to myself, "What a great idea!" The suggestions in this book are current, realistic, and easy to apply. Things like having your child carry one of your business cards on his or her person, or getting to know by name the bus driver who takes your child to school each day. They are simple, plain, and the kinds of things that will prevent the sort of tragedy that results in one saying "If I'd only done this..." Beyond that, the suggestions are not the kinds of things that will keep you locked behind closed doors. There's nothing paranoid here. Just common sense. "Keep Safe" is well written and easy to read. It has clearly been well researched by two authors who have spent their careers in the field of public safety. Having been in the law enforcement field for eleven years myself, I recommend "Keep Safe" to anyone who wants to live more safely, and thus more fully, in a dangerous world.

This is the most affectionate writing on Portugal I've encountered in English. Pure pleasure from beginning to end. Note the incisive comparison between Spaniards and the Portuguese. I can tell you it's right on the money. There are things in this book that would escape the notice of a native, so it's a particular treat for Portuguese-Americans.

I initially read this book because of the author's great bird hunting book, Pheasants of the Mind. I have read 100's of books and it is one of the best explorations of a place and its culture I have seen. I wish I could find others like it.

I can't believe this book is out of print! Proper combines three aspects of Portugal to create his richly evocative book: his relationship to the land through trout fishing, his relationships to old and new Portuguese friends, and his sensitive portrayal of the way the past informs modern life in Portugal. You'll smell the fresh bread, frolic with Camoes's nymphs, and feel the sun in the Algarve. A terrific book.

A great love story that will appeal to golf enthusiasts as well as those less familiar with the sport.

Love affects us all with a strength and potency that transcends all levels of the physcial being. Anne has helped show that love truly has no boundaries and can affect us in many ways. It is sad what happended to Tommy, but it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. I have not read a better novel that displays this. I am a golf enthusiast and can relate to the book. Anne's work is phenomenal. I did get the pleasure of speaking with her online one evening. That was my inspiration to purchase the book.

I can heartily recommend A.K. Fisher's "The Legend of Tommy Morris." It is a great book for all the broken-hearted people of the world, with a warm honest message. Sin of all sins I read it in the bookstore, but I plan to go back and purchase a copy very soon. This is the author's first book, and surely an indication of great things to come

My little girl is four and she loved this book...a favorite!!!

This book is a perfect buy for any parent who wants to show their little girl what ballet lessons would be like; without actually viewing a class. Using actual photos, it shows little girls preparing for ballet class (barre excersizes and plies in the kitchen, hair prep., tooth brushing) it shows an actual class at the barre, making friends, streaching. Then it shows the girls getting their tutus out for a ballet recital. Make-up, hair and head pieces, along with pre-show jitters. Some shots of a recital and the after shots with proud parents and flowers. A perfect way to show your future ballerina what ballet classes are all about.

My mommy and daddy read this book to me every night. I want to be a ballerina and this book shows little girls like me at ballet school. I love the pictures. They show the girls dancing without using too many big words. I would suggest this book to any girl who likes to read about ballerinas!

my history of mathematics teacher at UGA has called this a definitive work. I ordered it as a supplement to the class... and from my reading of it, I can put my stamp of approval on it. It's good--mathematical but also historical; If it's not as delicious prose-wise as most history we have to forgive him. Those are not easy fields to try to shuttle between.
I will say that you should not expect a deep treatment of the math. If you are interested in something like 'the ontological evolution of the western idea of number' this is not a good place to look; if you want to watch calculus fall with a thud out of the churning events of the seventeenth century, practically pristine, then Kline will take you there and the ride is smooth and scenic.

As one might expect from a 3-volume history, _Mathematical Thought_ is comprehensive; Kline covers basically all the important mathematical developments from ancient times (e.g. the Babylonians) until about 1930. Note that (as Klein himself mentions) the coverage of ancient mathematics, while taking up a good half of the first volume, is necessarily modest, and if that is the reader's primary interest, s/he would do best to seek out specific histories on the Greeks, Chinese, etc. [Kline gives several useful references, as always].

The reader interested in the 18th and 19th centuries will find plenty of food for thought. For example, the story of non-Euclidean geometry is covered well, and Kline does a good job of putting the discoveries in the light of the times. One notable thing I learned is that Lobachevsky and Bolyai were not the discoverers of non-Euclidean geometry, nor were they the first to publish material on that subject. Others before had expressed the opinion that non-Euclidean gometry was consistent and as viable a geometry as Euclidean (e.g. Kluegel, Lambert...even Gauss!) It remained for Beltrami to later show that if Euclidean geometry were consistent, so is non-Euclidean. Of course, important events like the invention of Galois theory are also mentioned. Really, if it's a major mathematical development before 1930, Kline will have it somewhere in these 3-volumes.

Incidentally, Kline advances the interesting theory that Lobachevsky and Bolyai somehow learned of Gauss' work on non-Euclidean geometry (which he kept secret and was not learned of until after his death) through close friends of Gauss: Bartel (mentor to Lobachevsky) and Bolyai's father, Farkas. [I understand that this theory has been shown false by recent research into Gauss' correspondence] Kline is careful to indicate it is only speculation by phrasing words carefully, e.g. "might have..." and "perhaps he..." I can appreciate Kline's various speculations and opinions, usually they are very interesting, and (at least in these volumes) he always does a good job of highlighting where the account of history ends and his ideas begins. Even so, luckily for those who like unbiased historical accounts, he inserts himself into the text rarely. This may surprise readers who have read his other books, like _Mathematics: the Loss of Certainty_. This history is a scholarly work, although one can't really say that about his other works.

Kline also writes quite a bit about the development of the calculus, as one should expect, given its major role in forming modern mathematics. I got a much deeper appreciation of calculus from reading various sections, which explained how this or that area was influenced or invented because of certain calculus problems.

I debated about giving this book 4 stars since there are a few minor flaws. One I've mentioned above; I think Kline should have kept his voice objective, instead of occasionally going into a little diatribe on his pet peeves. This is minor, since he doesn't do it too often, and I suppose he can be excused for being human. Another is that the index is rather weak. For a work of this magnitude, one expects that one ought to be able to find the phrase "hyperbolic geometry" in the index. Surprisingly one doesn't. "Non-Euclidean geometry" is there, but not the other phrase, which is synonymous and more common nowadays. There are other examples, but this is the one that comes to mind now.

Finally, I should add that I have not read every page of this history nor am I even close to doing that. I have read parts of all three volumes, and the quality seems consistent. That said, this is not a history one should read straight through. It is meticulous and well-documented, which can make for rather dry reading, so I suggest you do plenty of skipping around. I found (and will probably still find) Kline useful for helping me understand the context of the various mathematical concepts I was studying. Not only that, but I found his explanations of some topics to be even better than those in standard textbooks. Because of the insights I've gained, I've decided to overlook the little flaws, so...five stars!

I found the book in college library. It is the best one on math history I have read.

As an IO researcher I have found this book to be invaluable. Bayesian and sequential decision problems are explained from the bottom-up with great clarity. Its a shame this classic is out of print!

I was looking for particular information about conjugate priors , and this book had exactly what I was looking for.

Chapters Include: Subjective Probability, Utility, Decision Problems, Conjugate Prior Distributions, Sequential Decisions, Optimal Stopping

It is a wonderful book for financial and Industrial Organization research. The book illustrates how to use Bayisan Statistics for updating counsumers/traders' information about products/stocks, which is widely used in asymetric/coordination games and in uncertainty research.

The book is clearly written, easy to understand even without a solid backgroup in Baysian Statistics. And with a normal prior distribution of belief, you will get a beautiful/approachable normal posterior distribution. This definitely simplies the information-updating process much.

Most of my several thousand volume library consists of serious books, works of literature, literary criticism, philosophy, history, theology, political science, and so on. But I also have a shelf or two devoted to "fun" books, books that I pick up and just lose myself in having fun. This is one of my favorite fun books. Not a masterpiece. Probably won't be in print twenty years from now. But the photographs are spectacular! And in just under 300 pages, almost every major city and structure of Europe has been photographed from the air. It is not merely the famous sights and buildings that makes this such a fun book, but some striking photographs of relatively unknown features. For instance, one of the most stunning photographs for me is what would appear to be a gigantic green field in Denmark that has been punctuated by a series of large housing circles, each cut off from one another, and each surrounded by the same green field.

The text has been provided by noted travel writer Jan Morris. The book is largely structured by starting with Italy and proceeding clockwise through the entire European continent, ending with Greece, Romania, and Turkey.

I really can whole heartedly recommend this book to anyone except those who don't like to look at anything. But if you have any interest in the world, in traveling, in Europe, in history, in photography, or in just having fun looking at awesome photos, this book will prove to be an utter delight.

I stumbled upon this title in a competitor's bookstore and was astonished that I hadn't read a review anywhere. With a 1998 imprint and Jan Morris as the author of the text, it doesn't seem like it should be an obscure tome, yet even here on Amazon.com, only one other person has reviewed it!

The photos are designed to provoke a sense of wonder and awe in the reader/viewer, and they succeed aesthetically, emotionally, and psychologically. From the rock of Gilbralter to a dense set of "potato row" houses in Copenhagen; from snowfields near the Arctic circle to Turkey--it's all here, images snapped from blimps, airplanes, helicopters, almost any method by which one might be "over" Europe.

One will not be able to glimpse most of these sites from comparable vantage points on a typical trek across the continent unless one plans to do so in a biplane. The images here are unusual in their breadth and majesty. ... The text is literate and fun. Buy it and marvel.

If you regard this book as just another coffee table book you aren't even half right. This is one of the best photo books I have ever seen. The pictures are outstanding. Nearly every photo takes you to the alter of the church, the edge of the cliff, or the gate to the castle. Not only is it a photo book, but a great travel book. These aren't just descriptions of what to see, but beautiful pictures showing you what you will want to see when you get there. You won't even need to take a camera or change for postcards-- the best pictures are right here. Get this book before you plan your vacation to Europe.