Not all regional field guides are the same: some aim to be thorough references of their subject matter, others aim to be useable in the field. This one is as much a university-level textbook on Alberta herpetofauna, with general information as well as discussions of local habitat that take up more room than the species descriptions themselves.

On the one hand, this makes for a useful reference to its subject, particularly for biology students (its bibliography, for example, is enormous); on the other, its scanty species descriptions reduce its usefulness for those who want a field guide, or who want to know more specifically about the animals in question.

In at least one instance this limited space leads to an oversimplication that I believe to be incorrect: the book states that garter and hognose snakes are rear-fanged and mildly venomous. While they have enlarged rear teeth and their saliva does seem to cause reactions in some people, I do not believe that is the same as venom produced by venom glands and delivered by hollow fangs, as is the case with true rear-fanged snakes (such as Hypsiglena, Trimorphodon, Boiga). In any event, the characterization overlooks such subtleties, which detracts from our understanding of these animals.

Now in an updated and expanded second edition, Anthony Russell and Aaron Bauer's The Amphibians And Reptiles Of Alberta is enhanced with color photographs by Wayne Lynch and black/white illustrations by Irene McKinnon. This superbly presented field guide and primer of Boreal Herpetology showcases the amphibians and reptiles that are part of the ecological economy of Alberta, Canada. The Amphibians And Reptiles Of Alberta is an essential, core, scholarly addition to professional and academic Canadian amphibian and herpetofauna wildlife reference collections.

this book was very informative about the life of anne boleyn. It was accurate historically which is good.

This book accurately depicts the life of Anne Boleyn after meeting Henry VIII, her life as Catherine of Aragon's maid of honor, her struggle to become Queen of England, and her struggle to maintain that status by delivering Henry an heir. This was the first book in years that kept me so captivated that I couldn't put it down! It was amazing; it was educational; it was entertaining. READ IT!

My advanced mathematical training is in statistics, which is a field that relies HEAVILY on linear algebra. One undergraduate course in linear algebra is really insufficient to understand the mathematics necessary for the more advanced courses and some knowledge of functional analysis is also useful. This book is--thanks to Dover--an inexpensive way to fill the gap through self-study. It is highly useful for explaining a number of more advanced results without being too technical. Enhancing its utility to people working in applied fields, it has a number of useful examples and applications illustrating the utility (well, mathematical utility :) of the concepts discussed, e.g., applications to least squares problems, Fourier series, etc.

This book was recommended to me as a starting point to both review and learn advanced mathematics useful for robotics scientists and engineers. It covers linear differential equations, algebras (including Lie algebra), and metric spaces.

I found the text reasonable readable, and would recommend it to anyone looking to improve their understanding of the mathematical fundamentals useful for robotics and control research.

This book is indespensible for people who need just a little bit more rest. A little bit goes a long way!

This book is excellent. I used to only get about 9 hours sleep a shift. Now, I fall asleep in the car on the way to work, sleep right through my shift, and have never felt better. I sleep so soundly, that even people breaking into the store I guard didnt wake me, and they cleaned the whole joint out! Even the desk I was sleeping on got stolen. Best money on a book Ive ever spent!

This book has a really cool name, but I already know how to make tennis ball launchers, besides that won't cut in Tokyo, we need something really big to take out that giant lizard that always comes around and stomps on our city!

The book was completely helpful in teaching me how to build an effective tennisball bazooka. In other books I've read on homemade "tennisball launchers" the tennisballs on go so far, with this bazooka I can't even find my tennisballs.

I thought there were too many characters and the story rambled on over the same ground. In addition, this story had too little emphasis on high finance which is always my favourite area. I felt after I read it that this story could have been about widgets and it would have made no real difference.

I have read all Emma Lathen's books and have just finished this one. It is fun, but I missed some of her usual characters - Tom Robichaux, Everett Gabler and Walter Bowman in particular. However, the plot was tight and altogether a good read

The Burnt Stick is about what most of the stolen generation went through when they were taken away. The tribes were desperate to keep their children from the authroities. I think that this leaves the readers with the ever growing knowledge that the Abourignies of Australia have been terribly mis-treated in the past and still are in the present.

This story is about a young boy named John. He is Aboriginal but has light coloured skin because his father was white. His mother becomes very worried when their is word of a man coming to take all the white children from the Aboriginal camp, to teach the children the white ways. The mother decides to use a burnt stick to make her sons skin dark. Will this work? This story touched me and i think it will touch you or your childs. the story is wonderfull and so are the illustrations.

My feeling is that the target audience for this book is practitioners who did not study strategic management back in school but want to adopt a strategic thinking in their businesses. The book would be a good read for that purpose. This book was one of my first readings in my graduate level research involving strategic management. While I enjoyed reading it, after reading other strategy books like Aaker's "Developing Business Strategies", Porter's "Competitive Strategy" and Mintzberg's "The Strategy Process", I never had to go back to this book again. The process proposed by the author is essentially an optimization process to find the optimum solution, which they call "breakthrough strategy". However, the book falls short of demonstrating how the proposed process can be used to address real life problems which are often complex and dynamic. Even though the authors claim they were able to formulate consistently breakthrough strategies in the past using this process in real life, I think the book does not provide enough evidence to support that claim. On the other hand, I also acknowledge that there is a need for structured processes to help planners to formulate effective strategies even if they are not tested thoroughly. The book is a good attempt to meet that need.

I am the technologies director of my firm, and I have read many books on the subject of strategy formulation and innovation management, as well as a host of other business subjects. I find that they all have one common flaw, they do not provide answers to the thought provoking questions they ask. Business Strategy Formulation, on the other hand, has all of the answers to some of today's biggest challenges in business. Mr. Ulwick obviously has a tremendous understanding and practical knowledge of creating breakthrough strategies and solutions for organizations. He demonstrates this with incredible case histories and his detailed explanation of problem areas. Additionally, Mr. Ulwick explains his ground-breaking new technology with precise terminology, leaving no room for question. When I was finished reading this book, I felt that I had, for the first time ever, a clear understanding of what strategy formulation should be. I also finally understand why it is so difficult to grasp what my customers value and how to deliver that value. This book is a must read for anyone interested in learning more about strategy formulation, managing innovation, or creating customer value.

I believe that most contemporary folks only know of Cardinal Richelieu from two sources: 1. As the scheming villain of countless "Three Musketeers" films, or 2. As the surprise witness at the parking ticket trial in the famous Monthy Python sketch. Both these portrayals, of course, are incorrect, and the author of this fine work has endeavored mightily to correct any wrong impressions we may have about this justly famous, but reviled, man. Levi's Richelieu was a churchman of true faith and belief who spent his life trying to consolidate the French people and sovereign into a modern nation state, and succeeded, more or less, by the time of his death. It is a fascinating read, marred only by the changing names of some of the players, and a light going over of French history that often leaves the lay reader confused as to what was happening where and by whom. It's worth finishing, though, to give insight into the mind and actions of a man who had a goal, and stayed with it in a single-minded way during his entire career in public service to his king and country.

Unfortunately, what the lay public knows about Cardinal Richelieu lays between the harried pages of Alexander Dumas. In 'The Three Musketeers' and in 'The Man in the Iron Mask' Dumas paints a profile, a one sided antagonist that bears only a miniscule of truth. As he works in history cavalier, beyond the Aristotelian precept, Dumas pere, has left us, alas, a sad legacy concerning our valiant Cardinal. Take it at face value. I don't like Dumas pere. The true brilliance lies in his son, Alexander Dumas fils, who left us the sublime and transparent 'La dame aux camellias', XIXc' legendary succes de scandale (how's that for editorial commnets!) But Anthony Levi gives us now a much more keen view of our brave and brilliant cardinal, who did so much for France. Levi's is no papier mache evil puppet ready to be burned at the whim of some harried author. Anthony Levi thrills in the sagacity with which this personally fragile priest dealt with the constant and turbulant avalanche, that was the seemingly thankless, indirect governing of France. For Richelieu never seemed to take credit (emphasis on seem) The goverment belonging to a flawed Luis XIII and his somewhat monstruous mother Marie de Medici. With them, and later with the exile of Marie, the Cardinal dealt with such wisdom, with such lucidity (and duplicity) with such courage. That he remains an icon in my personal pantheon. All he did was for the better of France. Richelieu is the age of Louis the XIII. I liked this biography a lot. I thought it was well narrated and the characters, the intelligent cardinal, the deviate king, and the ponderous queen mother. Were tackled with verve and true emotion. The du Plessis beginning I found somewhat mirred in unnessesary data. No real man there. Mind, you, I don't mean Victoria Holt, here. Though sometimes not a vital name and not a vital date should better be left out. Actually I was dragged down during du Plessis' ruthless climb, and sometimes beyond, by too many names and numbers. Not a read as silly as Dumas' but a biography not so bent on seeming scholastic. Get to the feeling people. What remains is Cardinal Richelieu grand! luxurious! audacious, ruthless, even murderous when called for. Vindictive, able, filled with nepotism. Able to design, construct, then stear a country; otherwise chaos. The great pater patrie of France. For an excellent sequel to cardinal Richelieu's life, look up Ian Dunlop's absorbing biography 'Louis XIV'

provide a good and easy to understand introduction to the subject

This book gives a good introduction to the mathematical modeling of cognition and does so with a level of mathematics that is very accessible to a typical graduate student in computer science or psychology. The book could have been written using tools from measure theory but luckily it was not for a book at an introductory level. The concept of probably approximately correct is introduced early on in the third chapter of the book with efficient learning given later on in Chapter 5. Chapter 7, the best chapter of the book, discusses the idea of VC dimension, which has had many applications, such as network stability and optimization. VC dimension plays the pre-dominant theme in the rest of the book, with the book ending with an application to neural networks. There are short problem sets at the end of the chapters, and these are useful for more understanding of the concepts in the book. A very interesting book and worth the price.