The poem "Murano" though beautiful is not my favorite Doty poem. Written for his deceased poet friend Lynda Hull, the poem contrasts the permanence of Murano glass with the stench and death often associated with Venice. "Is this what becomes of art, the hard-won permanence outside of time? A struck match-head of a city, ungodly lonely in its patina of fumes and ash? Gorgeous scrap heap where no one lives, or hardly anyone."

There is no need to combine pictures and poetry. One usually dominates the other. First class poetry does not need to be illustrated. (I certainly think Mr. Doty is a first class poet; his poems often bring me much pleasure. I'm also of the opinion that poetry should be read, rather than explicated. The good poet always says what we cannot explain very well.) Fine art does not require commentary. Books like this are difficult to pull off and seldom satisfy completely. This one is no exception.

On the minus side, the book is definitely not an exhaustive reference text. The knee chapter is relatively short, especially given the huge volumes of knee MRs radiologists are seeing. Also, the authors are a bit too opinionated about which sequences to use in some chapters - a more evidence-based and less anecdotal approach to tailoring exams would have been more useful.

Overall, highly recommended for radiology residents who are encountering MSK MR for the first time.

True to the authors intentions, the text presents practical aspects of interpreting musculoskeletal magnetic resonance studies. The text is perfectly suited to radiology residents, fellows and radiologists interpreting routine mri's. Essential technical information including suggestions for protocols are provided as well as an organized approach to interpretation.

I liked the sequence of normal descriptions immediately followed by associated pathology. There were sufficient images of excellent quality. Illustrations and diagrams are well thought out and "boxes" with core information are also present for those of us who just want the essential list! Definitely an easily read text. One should realize that this, however, is not a reference text! A musculoskeletal radiologist or individual with special interest in this area will likely find this too superficial. But the authors intentions are not to replace Resnick or Stoller's excellent reference texts.

Bottom line is I definitely recommend it for the price because it fills the gap between an intro book and the heavy duty texts just as it intends to...it is the missing link.

Here's what to expect before you try tracking this book down: First off, DON'T get this book if you're a beginner or if you're buying for a beginner! Anyone who's not a pretty advanced folder will only end up thoroughly frustrated, no matter how much he or she likes the topic of the book. That's not so much because of the complexity of the models (although some of them are definitely at a high-intermediate level) but because of the diagrams. Errors and inaccuracies abound, sometimes even stumping the most experienced of folders. On top of that, the photos are mostly pretty horrible, so much so that I've heard from others who haven't been inspired to fold from this book at all. And that's really too bad! The 15 models included are very nice, it's just hard to actually complete them using the diagrams provided... Just to give you a taste of the quality of the models: Among the authors who have contributed their models are Robert Lang, Gabriel Alvarez (featuring a great Daedalus!), Neal Elias, Robert Neal and Marc Kirschenbaum.

So, if you're an advanced folder, by all means, try to track down a copy of this small book, but be prepared to be frustrated by the diagrams nonetheless. Otherwise, I'm sorry to say you'll be better off with a different book (say by John Montroll or Robert Lang).

The metrics covered in the text are number of scenario scripts, number of key classes, number of support classes, average number of support classes per key class, number of subsystems, average person-days per class, average number of classes per developer, number of major iterations, number of contracts completed, number of message sends, number of statements, lines of code, average method size, method complexity, number of public instance methods in a class, number of instance methods in a class, average number of instance methods per class, number of instance variables in a class, average number of instance variables per class, number of class methods in a class, number of class variables in a class, class hierarchy nesting level, number of abstract classes, use of multiple inheritance, number of methods overridden by a subclass, number of methods inherited by a subclass, number of methods added by a subclass, class cohesion, global usage, average number of parameters per method, use of friend functions, percentage function-oriented code, average number of comment lines per method, average number of commented methods, number of problem reports per class or contract, class coupling, number of times a class is reused, and number of classes/methods thrown away.

The book's approach is a lot less intense compared to other metrics books like those written by Capers Jones. The focus is much more on measuring object-oriented aspects of the code rather than on measuring the functionality as with Function Points.

Although this isn't clearly stated in the editorial review, don't miss the reading level. The CIPS data correctly categorizes this title as "Epidemiology -- Juvenile literature."

....

Although this isn't clearly stated in the editorial review, the CIPS data correctly categorizes this title as "Epidemiology -- Juvenile literature."

Here's a sample paragraph: A virus is the simplest and smallest of life forms. It is a protein shell enclosed in a core of nucleic acid. (Nucleic acid such as RNA and DNA are the molecules in a cell that carry heriditary information and direct the cell's activity.) There are more than 1,400 known viruses. They have many shapes but most are round, or cylindrical.

At first hundreds of pages of dry text, and then no illustrations. Not inspiring. Though might be an "excellent reference", it still remains dry...

I am positive that some illustrations and photographs would keep my attention for longer.