For anyone who struggled to understand why the nephron concentrates, then dilutes, then concentrates again the urine, this book will do much to ease your pain. Since medical school I've purchased Editions 1, 3, & 5, just so that I could keep up with my interns & residents. Here's how he does it:
#1: short book, (you know how intimidating those tomes can be)
#2: lots of diagrams
#3: end-of-chapter questions (with answers & explanations)

If you want to understand the Kidney, no matter where you are in your studies or practice, I wholeheartedly recommend this text.

Renal physiology can be very difficult to truly understand, and yet an understanding of it is essential to understanding so many aspects of physiology, pathology, and pharmacology. Studying diuretics for cardio pharm is nightmarish unless you understand the physiology of the loop of Henle. Vander takes this difficult yet important subject and makes it easy to understand. The book reads extremely quickly, and the flow-charts and diagrams are amazing. I never even opened Berne & Levy for renal phys--I read Vander's book (which is no longer than B&L's renal chapters) and cruised through renal phys. I am writing this review now, a year after I took physiology, because I am now studying for the USMLE Step 1. I have not looked at Vander's book in a year, but I still remember renal phys, and reviewing it now is the easiest part of my studying (the only easy part, in fact). That is because, thanks to Vander, I actually understand renal physiology. A great book!!

For any medical student that needs a comprehensive, but easily understood explanation of the structure and function of kidneys, I highly recommend Renal Physiology by Vander. It is very well written, and covers all the basic principles that you will need to know to understand pathologies associated with the kidneys.

A biography of the undefeated champ, from his somewhat hard childhood and attempts
to break into baseball, to his boxing career after the army, to his retirement and the life of Reilly that followed. It's written in an almost fictionalized style - quotes from scenes in Rocky's life come from interviews, doubtless, but as exact quotes they must be taken with a large grain of salt. Skehan doesn't judge, nor is he critical; he merely reports, without skepticism. The picture that emerges is an ambiguous one. The Rock was obviously a tightfisted cheapskate, sometimes to the point of criminality (cheating pay phones, defrauding an insurance company for ten grand). He had strange ideas about money; not trusting banks, he'd squirrel away large chunks of cash. He had all sorts of business deals, shady and otherwise, that he enacted without so much as a signature or IOU. Many of Rocky's friends insist he was staunchly loyal, but his long-time trainer Al Columbo's estrangement, his lifelong argument with another friend over a probably imagined forty bucks, and his failure to help out the boxer he hospitalized all belie this picture. The consensus is that Rocky was pretty much the all-time greatest; since he faced the champions of his time when they were nearing 40, this is disputable, and the book should state that. Certainly, Skehan blatantly glosses over serious flaws in Rocky's character, such as soliciting prostitutes, leaving his wife and daughter for long stretches, cutting short vacations with them, etc. In all this is a thorough, interesting, easy to read bio, but it could stand to show a few more warts than it does. He was a great champion; we don't need to think he was a saint, too.

This biography is a pretty good straightforward report of Marciano's life. The author develops an intimate portrait of the champ, warts and all, through interviews with friends and acquaintances. We get to know what it was like to interact face to face with Marciano. In one sense, it's refreshing to get unanalyzed picture of a subject. But sometimes I wish author delved deeper. My only criticism is that the author doesn't really add any value to the subject, Rocky Marciano. The book lacks psychological insights into Marciano's personality. The author gives a report on the Rock's actions but doesn't penetrate into what made him tick. At several points, the author acknowledges that some of Rock's actions were a mystery to him. But one would expect after writing a book on the guy the author could provide some answers. I understand I'm contradicting myself here but my judgment oscillates between enjoying the straightforward, unadulterated portrait and the need to understand the subject in some deeper sense.

Everett M. Skehan did a comprehensive, thoroughly professional biography on a great champion long deserving such attention. Rocky Marciano's soft spoken demeanor prompted him to stay away from media opportunities and let his fists do the talking for him. His incredible record of 49 consecutive professional victories with 43 knockouts serves as a glittering testimonial to his skills.

With his quiet demeanor, often to the point of preferring to stay in the background, Marciano would more than likely led an unobtrusive life in his native Brockton, Massachusetts and never missed the publicity had it not been for the fact that he was endowed with a rock hard body and the kind of stamina that brings back memories of boxing's only 3 time champion of the thirties, Hammering Henry Armstrong. Marciano had the shortest reach of any heavyweight titlist, but made up for it with a swarming style that smothered opponents, along with a solid punch that eliminated them.

Skehan's life reveals a major point of irony in life, the relativity of great talents. Marciano had one of the solidest constitutions of any fighter in ring history, possessing awesome power, yet, when he sought to pursue his first love as a boy growing up, baseball, by trying out for the Chicago Cubs s a catcher, he was thwarted. Marciano had the same kind of stolid, stocky build as all-time catching great Yogi Berra of the Yankees. When he tried out for the Cubs, however, he was rejected for not having a strong enough throwing arm. The short term loss proved to be his long term gain since, unless he had ability to rise to the level of a Berra and become a Hall of Famer, Marciano's accomplshments would have diminished compared to his boxing achievements as one of the greatest heavyweight champions of all time.

Marciano was a tireless worker, as this biography reveals. He was able to resist temptation in his determination to reach the top of the fight game in a career that spanned less than a decade, from 1948 to his retirement in 1955 with his celebrated 9th round knockout of Archie Moore, the world light heavyweight champion. Even while on his honeymoon in Miami Beach, Marciano would faithfully rise each morning to do his roadwork on the hotel golf course. On occasions when temptation beckoned and a beautiful woman would be available, Marciano bypassed the momentary pleasure to stay in shape during his fight career. As a result, when he did retire Marciano loaded up on calories and tasted delights of the flesh in rapid scale fashion, seeking to make up for lost time.

While understanding the reason behind Muhammad Ali's "I am the greatest" media campaign, which he acknowledged with the words, "He's trying to build a gate," he also let it be known that he did not appreciate such public relations tactics. He was a quieter sort and such a demeanor was inconsistent with his being and perhaps his understanding.

Skehan also carves out interesting sketches of Marciano's trainer Charlie Goldman and his manager Al Weill. Marciano revered the respected veteran trainer Goldman. He could not abide Weill, particularly when the manager wanted to sack Marciano's life long Brockton friend Allie Colombo. The fiercely loyal Marciano insisted that Colombo be kept on the payroll as a managerial and training assistant.

Great reproductions: gorgeous glowing colours in all their glory. Plodding text, though. Some good scholarly work - and for the first time Millais' later paintings are being taken with the seriousness they deserve. But that's about it really. We still get told the ol' story for the most part.

Buy it for he pictures (well worth it), for the information (worth it), but not the ideas (there aren't that many).

The author tried to write this book with a "lighter side" style and with more "test taking" strategies than some of the more well established study guides. A good attempt, especially concidering how dry the material can be. But if you are stuggling with how to spend your time and money preparing, I suggest strongly the following:

1) PMP: Project Management Professional Study Guide
by Kim Heldman

2) PMP Exam Prep (4th Edition)
by Rita Mulcahy

After you've completed these two "must reads", you may want to add PMP Certificatoin for Dummies by Gerald Everett Jones as a third pass at the information. But I'm afraid that this publicaiton only fills that limited role.

Get to work on the "must reads" and good luck with the exam.

R.T.

My study group reviewed this book and came to the conclusions that PMP Cert For Dummies has the best formulas, graphs, explanation of Quality and EV of any book you can find for studying for the PMP Cert exam. There is an 'everything but the kitchen sink' approach to listing formulas and the quantitative section really is easy to follow. I needed this spoon feeding to get the hang of the math.

Now, I believe I can ace the exam

This is the easiest of all the cert books to read.

Although the PMBOK Guide is organized along the lines of skills sets called the nine Knowledge Areas, the exam is organized along the lines of the five Process Groups. That provides a linear flow through the project lifecycle, which is how I work. This book (and the less complete ISBN 0782141064) are both based on how the exam is structured, rather than on the PMBOK Guide's structure. While this organization can be confusing to beginning project managers, PMI repeats over and over that these processes all connect, overlap and interact with each other. The PMBOK Guide was originally written by a bunch of engineers who really liked the idea of feedback loops and they understood that these processes happen simultaneously. So, in order to pass the exam, you have to think along the timeline of the project lifecycle as well as the Knowledge Areas. Otherwise, you'd miss every question "what do you do first?"

1.The familiar For Dummies icons make it easy to spot important information.
2.The answers are the most complete of any of the cert books. The questions are well thought out and representative of what is on the exam.
3.The CD has a study schedule (Microsoft Project template file) that provides a detailed roadmap to keep you on track. They suggest that you use this schedule and monitor your progress using Earned Value Analysis. That way you can practice the EV metrics that are on the exam.

Thanks, it's a great help! And it's the best value of any of the books in the category.