This modern physics book is excellent for those who have some background in the material that is covered. For those of us who are being introduced to the topic, it isn't the best text. The book whizzes through the basics of many topics and dives right into some of the more difficult material. That isn't true for every topic, but it is true for some of the hardest chapters. The math that is "explained" in this book is not explained; I learned all of the necessary math in lecture. It is easy to tell the writers know their material; they just can't express it very well to others in an introductory text. The book gets clearer in the middle, but discontinues that trend shortly. Also, the text contains numerous errors--our class just keeps finding more.

I would recommend at least getting an additional, simpler text if this is your assigned text. I used Paul Tipler's text, "Modern Physics" and Serway's Modern Text (a continuation of the intro to physics texts). These were of sufficient level and clarity. Out of the three, I thought Serway nosed ahead of Tipler with Bernstein, etc. in last.

Overall, this book is good as an introduction to more difficult physics. However, it doesn't stand alone very well for first-timers in the field. For those of you interested, THIS BOOK IS NOT GOOD FOR SELF-STUDY.

I bought this book for the first class in modern physics that I took. Till then I had only read books by Serway and Hayt for mechanics and electromagnetics. Comparably this book is not as well explained as Serway, but also not as difficult to understand as Hayt. However, It is a very good book for people who are just getting introduced to the concepts of Modern Physics. I think that the book gives a good base to readers who would like to further study modern physics. It is clearly and precisely explained and helps the reader see the physical world in a new perspective, different from what is understood by studying mechanics and electromagnetics. The book is divided into 4 parts: Relativity, Quantum mechanics, Applications and Frontiers. Each part does a fair role of presenting a good explanation supported by easy to understand diagrams, graphs and equations. Each physical concept is accompanied by a historical background and mathematical equations to back it up. The final sections talk about some applications of these concepts, such as lasers and semiconductors, which would be useful to engineering students as myself. I think that the book would be a good choice for someone who is beginning to learn modern physics.

I am a college professor who has used this book for two years in a sophomore-level course on modern physics. In my opinion it is substantially better than competing textbooks currently available. It is written in a clear and engaging fashion, the illustrations are good, and the examples are well chosen. The mathematical level is appropriate for sophomore physics, engineering, or other physical science majors. The homework problems are also well designed and a good resource.

I do have a couple of quibbles. Thermodynamics are not introduced until Chapter 12, which makes the discussion of the black body spectrum in chapter 4 highly abbreviated and hard to follow--I actually had my class jump ahead to the first part of chapter 12 and then go back to chapter 4, hardly an ideal approach. Also, the Instructor's Solutions Manual is almost completely useless--carelessly produced and riddled with errors.

This "journal" was such a disappointment. Plain paper, no lines, no quotes, nothing to compel me to write in it. Gave it to my 8-yr old to doodle in, I'll buy another journal for myself. Would be a good sketch book or a place to paste articles or ideas cut from newspapers

I've reorderd this journal multiple times, after having experimented with all kinds of notebooks for keeping track of ideas, personal journaling, essay development, etc. Its the right size; great paper, especially for fountain pen ink; the spirals never wear out, get torn, etc; great in every way... a journal for writers.

This journal has high quality bleed-proof writing paper perfect for fountain pen ink, or acrylic paint as well as for pencil drawing, or flower pressing! I am thrilled to find a lovely journal so competitvely-priced that has so many pages‹130 is a lot better than 75 or 100‹and gets me through a three-month period! I love the U-Ring binding (NOT spiral) that opens completely flat everywhere you open it. I take this journal everywhere with me and use it daily for a variety of purposes from note-taking to peotry writing to drawing and journaling. I highly recommend this journal to anyone who really loves to write or draw.

Instead of merely translating a number of common myths and legends, the authors explain each story in a summary fashion, and always in third person. I personally found this to be very distracting, not to mention a little dry. If you are looking for a book which captures the spirit of the Japanese tales instead of merely recounting their basic plot lines, this is not the book for you.

I found this book to be a well of information. I loved this book tremendously. I originally used it for a project on myths and legends in japan but as I discovered more about this topic (which this book had helped to release) I became more and more fascinated with the subject. This book revealed many myths and legends in depth than you can find in or on many resources (especially over the internet). I highly recommend this book for the readers enjoyment and information.

Of course I am not an expert on "Myths and Legends of Japan", so I cannot judge the accuracy of the book, but nevertheless I do think that this is an absolutely fantastic read. First published in 1913, and thanks to one of my favourite publishing companies, Dover, made available again in 1992.

It's not just a collection of (translated) stories of myths and legends in Japan, the author also gives some background information and further explanations.

The range of topics covered is huge: from the Gods to heroes and warriors to foxes to legends in Japanese art to the sacred Mount Fuji to flowers and gardens, mirrors, insects, fans, thunder, superstitions, supernatural beings, Kintaro... to give you just a few examples!

I must admit that at first I found it difficult to get into this book, but after about 30 pages I was hooked and had a hard time putting it down. Some of the stories are very moving, some breath-taking, others just sweet...

Since common myths and legends of a people do say quite a bit about it, one can only be blown-away by just what a nation Japan must be!

This book covers the inter working of the Nixon White House and the two people the authors claim really ran the day to day - John Ehrlichman and Bob Haldeman. The book starts out with a nice history on the power of the Presidents cabinets during the time from FDR to Nixon and the back and forth that took place with power being centralized in the White House or at the cabinet level. The authors also provided an interesting review of the Nixon cabinet picks - who they were, how they got their jobs and what happened to them during the course of the administration. Of course following the premise of the book a good deal of this reporting centers on how Ehrlichman and Haldeman interacted with them and or caused their downfall.

The authors did make a lot about how Ehrlichman and Haldeman were in such control and the power they held, but all administrations have similar people - if not they fall into disarray. A good example of this would be the first few years of the Clinton administration until the Chief of Staff was replaced - many books have detailed the out of control White House and the mistakes that were made. I think what is unique or most interesting about this book is the underlying tone of the administration and its use of power not only to get things done, but also to punish political enemies. The book touches on that part of the administration and you see it in many of the actions Ehrlichman and Haldeman took.

The authors have a spunky writing style, but many references are 1970's based and if you were not even a teenager in the 70's it is something difficult to understand the full meaning of the comments. Overall it was an interesting book that covers an aspect that was not as well reported as the break in and cover up. I would think that it is a book that would appeal most to political junkies.

This is an interesting examination of the inner workings of Nixon's organization, concentrating in good part upon aides John Ehrlichman and Bob Haldeman. I bet most White House operations are run as strictly as Nixon's was -- you simply MUST have exemplary efficiency and effectiveness at that level -- though without the stainless steel quality that those two palace guards imbued.

My favorite episode was the one wherein the wife of a terminally ill senator petitioned the president's office for Nixon to visit the man on his deathbed. Haldeman evaluated the situation and determined it would be more politically beneficial for Nixon to be seen consoling the bereaved widow... so good old Bob wrote this immortal instruction to the staff member who'd forwarded the request: "Wait until he dies."

"The Palace Guard" is the story of the two most powerful underlings in the Nixon Administration, H.R. "Bob" Haldeman and John Ehrlichman. Together, they rose to the pinacle of success by shielding their paranoid boss from all those with whom he did not wish to associate. And together they fell, both resigning on the last day of April 1973 as the heat from the Watergate scandal began to scorch the second term President who had been reelected by a landslide only months before. Rather and Gates's account, while lacking historical perspective, is fascinating in how it depicts two power hungry men who moved largely in the shadows. They served their boss well, even to the end when it was hoped that by their sacrifice he would be saved. Political junkies will love their story.

In an effort to be *objective,* Mason's account bends to the negative side. The author's voice was a little too impersonal and left me without much insight into who Maharishi actually is. However, the book includes some interesting quotes from hard to find sources. If this isn't what you're looking for you may want to read "Beyond Gurus" instead.

Well I bought this book used for three dollars and it was worth every penny.In the very beginning inside the cover it states that Paul Mason has practiced TM for over twenty years yet throughout the book he seems negative about his own Guru.Perhaps he is being truthful(the reason I gave three stars) but he does not mention the benefits of TM for himself REALLY so is he trapped in a mere habit of doing TM everyday? Also he fails to mention that capitalistic Westerners are running the TM movement for the elderly Guru and with or without his permission are ripping people off for ungodly sums of money for mere words. It costs $2,500.00 to learn TM and $3000.00 to learn to hop around in the lotus position for the Sidhi techniques.He goes farther to disprove and discredit TM than a lot of anti-TM authors....thanks Paul for telling people what a line of BS TM really is. :) Save your money and look elsewhere....

There are many TM books written by those in the TM movement that are biased with all kinds of claims, from unbelievable health benefits to flying! This book is a very balanced account of Transcendental Meditation.

Miklowitz's tome is written in the language of solipsistic academese. THough most of his interpretations and analogies start out well, they disintegrate into obfuscated enigmas shortly thereafter. Having read other authors on the same subject--including Paul Ricouer, under whom Miklowitz has studied--I recommend going to straightforward sources and not trying to waft through pages of dense and tricky text if you are looking for something comprehensible.

Do not let the sentences packed full of jargon discourage you from spelunking through the Hegelian word-stalagtites to the core of this work! First, a dtermined reader will find great illumination not only of Hegel's thinking (and who couldn't use this), but of his place and meaning in the Continental tradition. And once through the mires of the Hegelian "Meta-mess", a light-hearted, though still heavy-worded adventure through the enigmatic "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" examines Nietzsche's ironic and complex literary wit. The interpretation offered is viable and must be discussed in any subsequent work attempting to grapple with the Hegel, Nietzsche and any possible future for philosophy.

This book attempts to explain how and why the traditional philosopher's ambition to provide a complete account of reality and truth has been largely abandoned in the twentieth century. Miklowitz argues that this high-minded ambition is realized in Hegel, but that its realization is catastrophic: the audacity of "absolute idealism" discredits the entire project, and leads to the nihilism of Nietzsche's anti-systematic perspectivism. This is a subtle and difficult book about an extremely important paradigm shift from "modernity" to what some call "postmodernity." Highly recommended for anyone interested in a serious interpretation of the philosophical underpinnings of contemporary culture.

Thank goodness that this one is better than the previous two, as said by the previous reviewer. When I was reading the text, I could not help falling asleep even though I had drunk 3 big cups of strong coffee. However, when I turned to Spivak's or Simmons', the situation totally changed! However, one thing that I truly thank the author is that they have taught me how to talk about math. But the numerical stuffs are awfully bad, and the graphs are made not quite attractive. Anyway, it's but a mediocre text of calculus for liberal arts major or future secondary school teachers of math. But as a pioneer of the calculus reform, this one is probably the would-be "classic". For future mathematicians: try Spivak or Apostol
For future physicists: try Edwards and Penney's and Stewart's

O and Z's first two books in their series of calculus texts were not helpful to most of the students that I know, myself included. The examples are missing crucial steps, the authors include confusing and unnecessary information, and many of the exercises are not especially helpful. While "Multivariable Calculus" retains some of these flaws (it, too, contains many examples that lack a thorough explanantion), it is a slight improvement. The chapters are slightly shorter, and--unlike the first books--there is little extraneous material. The exercises are also somewhat more helpful and relevant. There is also less reliance on computer programs and graphing calculators. The book is still not outstanding, but for students who have already begun the O and Z series in their courses, this book will not be impossible to use. However, this texxt would not be my choice if i were a teacher.

Even though a lot of professors and instructors have weeded out these texts, I found this book to be organized and helpful.
However, engineers are usually required to take some form of Advanced Engineering Math. I believe AEM is more detailed than Calculus III (multivariable) and that the books for AEM are usually more helpful than straight multivariable calculus. The reason is because multivariable calculus is too focused on the theory behind concepts like Green's Theorem, etc.. and doesn't really aim towards helping the student apply this knowledge in the field.

Sometimes its easier to understand things that you can find ways of using in real life.

The book provides an overview of .NET-programming using C# as the programming language. The author assumes that the reader is familiar with the Java language and J2EE. When introducing a .NET aspect, he explains the differences.

The book starts with a 50-page description of the differences between C# and Java. The author touches on most aspects of C##, but his analysis is not comprehensive and I don't understand the rationale behind his selection of topics. He spends two pages and quite a lot of code to explain how override the true and false operators, but he barely touches topics such as creating and destroying objects or basic things like literals, operators, ... He is also struggling to explain the innovative aspects of C#. Understanding his explanation of the events and delegates is quite a challenge. And although he uses attributes in his chapters about XML and Web services, he doesn't explain the concept at all. I also feel that the author should have written something about streams (another concept he uses without explaining it), collections and regular expressions.

After completing his C# introduction, the author starts to write about Winforms, ASP.NET and ADO.NET. IMHO, he wastes too much space with Visual studio screenshots and with descriptions how to click your way through Visual Studio. Visual Studio is not the only way to develop .NET applications. At least, there is the Mono project and Microsoft own freeware Webmatrix (for ASP.NET/ ADO.NET applications). In addition, Visual Studio does a good job to hide at least some aspects of the underlying technology: But the author obviously thinks that showing how to use Visual Studio is sufficient to expose the inner workings of a .NET aspect. In his description of ASP.NET, the author mentions some analogies to servlets and JSP, but fails to explain them. An example: "Server controls have more in common with JSP taglibs but are more complex to develop than user controls, as they support the roundtrip." That's all about the analogy, the author continues with some Visual Studio clicking. The more complex the concepts are, the more difficulties the author has to explain analogies between Java and .NET concepts.

The description of the other topics (multithreading, networking, remoting, XML, COM+ components, message queueing, directory services, packaging of applications, Windows services, calling ummanaged code) is in a similar shape. There are some gems in a pile of difficult to digest explanations, code examples and screen shots.

IMHO, this book isn't a good .NET introduction. And it needs more work to be a real timesaver for a developer moving from Java to .NET.

This is apparantly his first book, and it shows. The only merit is the subject matter. You can learn something because of that, and the newness of the subject. But he lacks basic communication skills. By next year (when superior books come out) the rating should be dropped to 1 star. I believe that the 5 star ratings here and elsewhere are from friends of his. Both are from Washington state, and they write like they know the guy.

Having concentrated on Java for several years, I procrastinated switching gears in order to come up to speed on .NET. It turns out to be simpler than I thought, at least when you have this book.

The author calls out every major feature and system of Java, comparing and contrasting its analogue on the .NET platform. His explanations are concise and the examples are very clear--so clear, in fact, I found he even answered lingering Java questions for me. Paul Gibbons leverages the many patterns familiar to all Java programmers, making .NET very approachable (and much more concrete).

This book seems to spring from the author's own practical experience, which makes it that much more valuable to a "working programmer." I highly recommend this book for anyone faced with learning .NET, but especially those who know Java. Their experience, combined with this book, will make the process a breeze.

There are so many references and footnotes, half the time I was lost whether I was reading the text or authors notes. The historical stories were ok - again the footnotes and authors descriptions made it very difficult to read. Overall I would not recommend this book to anyone that is not a serious reader. Joe Alaimo

As providing something of a counterpart for same-sex male fiction, drama, and philosophies of Ancient Greece (and other Western eras for toleration/veneration of such love) this occasionally random collection of stories is interesting reading. It's mostly scholarly, historical framework serves the purpose of further exposing the freshness of such a long-running and suprisingly vibrant counterculture as Japanese same-sex relations. Stereotypes of "Samurai," "Kabuki" and "Buddhist monks" unexpectedly receive new meaning. As a student in Japanese Studies I found it interesting that, in light of the popularity of gender studies in academia, this subject has not been given more attention. It's obvious this book intends to be both readable and scholarly; at both of which it, mostly, succeeds.

It is better to divide in two volumes, : i.e. premodern and contemporary Japanese gay literature, since most of westerners don't know Japanese male-love history. Modern anthology of Japanese is easy to read for common Americans, on the other hand, classical one is much difficult for the ignorant.