the essays contained within Finkelman's books are well written and well argued, just watch out because they contain an anti-Brown slant. These works are far from impartial and for a history text, some of them don't follow the traditional road to research of primary source, secondary, and so and so forth. The text is excellent if are looking to read good essays, but they are not impartial.

David Harper manages a biotechnology investment firm and is a research associate in the Zoology Department at the University of British Columbia. He draws on both his financial and technical expertise in his book Investing in Biotech.

The first half of the book presents the science of biotechnology at a level appropriate for the intelligent layperson. He explains the difference between biotech and traditional pharmaceuticals (large molecules often produced by the human body versus small molecules), describes the framework of disease (anatomy, physiology, pathology, and treatment), presents the various approaches to developing biotech drugs (e.g., gene therapy, monoclonal antibodies, antisense), and identifies specific types of disease which biotech products may treat (cardiovascular, neurological, metabolic, transplantation).

The second half presents factors to consider and strategies to employ in biotech investing. A biotech company's pipeline of potential future drugs is the most important factor in evaluating its investment potential. However, the value of each individual pipeline drug must be evaluated in terms of its progress through the process of clinical trials leading to approval and each drug must be assigned an appropriate weighting which increases as the drug progresses through these trials. Harper also presents his own formula for determining the value of biotech stocks which I have not seen elsewhere. It uses book value, share price, sales per share, and cash per share to estimate a stock's "financial valuation"; shares outstanding, average daily volume, institutional investment, and volatility (beta) to estimate "liquidity"; and present share price together with the 52-week high and low to represent "scope for growth". These three components are then combined to determine the overall valuation.

This approach appears to be heuristic rather than one grounded in classical financial valuation theory (as presented, for example, in Investment Valuation by Aswath Damodaran). Harper's approach may be particularly useful in valuing companies that are not currently profitable but would be more convincing if he provided either an explanation of how the formula was developed or historical data that justifies its use.

Harper concludes by applying his formula to evaluate the investment potential of numerous biotech companies as of the date of his writing. He stresses that this evaluation is only valid at that one point in time and will change with the rapidly changing technology and financial status of the companies.

Overall, Harper's book was interesting and very helpful in understanding the science of biotech. I would caution against using his approach to allocate a major percentage of any portfolio to biotech stocks (which Harper does not advocate). I don't mind an occasional small bet on a currently unprofitable company but prefer to invest primarily in companies (including some biotechs) with current and growing profits.

In addition to Damodaran's rather technical book cited above, a reader interested in this area might also consider Michael Murphy's Every Investor's Guide to High-Tech Stocks and Mutual Funds which covers biotech and other forms of technology from an investor's viewpoint.

This book is a thorough review of Jackson Pollock's work and his professional life; however I would have enjoyed it more if there had been more indepth reporting of his personal life. HIs relationship with his wife, parents and brothers would have made for a more insightful view of the artist as a man.

This is a great little book on World War II Aircraft as per advertized by Amazon. There are about 100 aircraft listed etc.
There are specs for each. This book is divided by Country
Each aircraft has two pages and one photo. As it says on the
front of the book.....A mine of information. This is correct.
I am not an expert but only the common aircraft for each country
are in the book. This is a great book for eight bucks. It is
a pocket book.....since it fits in your pocket! This is good for a first reference. If you need more info there are other books/the Internet/the public Library.

This book is very romatic from the beginning. Anyone who likes historical romance novels will love this one. You can picture everything in full detail. That is how presice the book is described. You can feel the sparks fly from the beginning to the end. A lovely romance.

A very frank and educational discussion about opening your own business or managing somone else's. A "must read" for anyone (which is everyone?) in a management role!

Kathleen Elliott has written an unusual first person Regency. Her heroine is naive without being a sap, and assertive without calling to mind that noxious word, "spunky"! Mary Chase Comstock, author of Midsummer's Magic

I liked this book a lot, but the author confused Mary of Bethany with Mary Magdalene. The author had Jesus speaking to Mary of Bethany after He was resurrected, but the Bible makes it clear that it was Mary Magdalene who Jesus spoke to. The author placed Mary, Martha, and Lazarus on location as Jesus was being baptized. There is a little romance also between Levi (AKA Matthew) and Mary of Bethany. Overall, the book was very good and I would recommend it. The author bring the characters to life.

I truely loved this book.Wehn I read it I felt as if i was that little girl and I felt her pain. The story is of this little girl and her parenst have recently seperated and her mom beats her.