This later edition of Joseph Smith and the Restoration is only a shell of the original. The first editions of this book were in large format hard back and paper back form and were produced prior to the 1973 version. The only problem is that the later edition has all of the same identification information as the original. It was requested that the book be trimmed down as it was too much for a student to digest in a semester of studies. It was further requested that all references to miracles, and specific names of players in the Missouri expulsion be removed as some of their descendents are now teaching at BYU. After the author reduced the content, what was left is a dull, dry, waste of time that leads to very little understanding of subject matter. Now, if you can find the original, that's another story altogether.

I had hoped to use Probability Games as a way of introducing my nephew to the subject of probability. Unfortunately, the book serves better as an example of how careful one must be when writing a book on mathematics.

The book contains 26 puzzles/games, most of which invite the reader to compute a probability or number of permutations. Five of the 26 contain errors, either in the text or in the answer section. Some of the errors are obvious. For example, the author states that the first puzzle has a unique solution. Any bright eight year old (the book is "for kids ages 8 and up") will find four distinct solutions without breaking a sweat.

Other errors are more subtle. For example, the author discusses two approaches to solving the first puzzle. In the first he uses pure trial and error. In the second, he uses a depth first algorithm. He notes correctly that the second method is much faster than the first. However, judging from his explanation, the author does not appear to know that he used two radically different methods. He attributes the difference solely to his choice of starting points.

Still other errors are simply baffling. One of the games involves a race. The reader is to determine which contestant will win. The discussion in the answer section would make sense only if the two contestants were engaged in a tug of war, not a race. In the puzzle following that one, the answer section has two contradictory answers.

Add to those the puzzles that depend on unstated assumptions (some reasonable, at least one completely absurd), and you're going to have one frustrated kid.

Like all the books in the Mind Games series, Probability Games has considerable visual appeal. It is a shame that more care was not used on the contents.

This is a very interesting novel, but I gave it one star because I am rating the edition instead. Lindisfarne Books should be razed by fire and the editors suspended over a slow barbecue. They went to great lengths to provide the book with an arresting cover, interesting typeface for the chapter title, and lively (if uninformed) review notices on the back cover, but were so slipshod in their copy editing that they omitted words from the author's text in the first sentence of the first chapter! I kid you not, this book starts with a phrase, not a sentence! Fortunately it is about living your life over again, so the complete sentence reappears correctly on page 162 at the beginning of chapter 26. But such errors are unacceptable and unforgiveable in an editor, and can lead in time to a loss of the complete text itself, as any classical scholar can tell you, if you can find any these days. Don't buy this edition!