This book is a great place to start to understand the role Calvin played in the development of Reformed covenant theology. Contrary to popular opinion, Calvin's covenant thought was borrowed not only from Bullinger and Zwingli, but the Medieval Scholastics! This may be surprising since many think of Calvin (along with Luther) as one of the great reformers who opposed the works-oriented soteriology of the Medieval Church. In fact, Calvin and Luther did not see eye-to-eye on many things in regards to the law, covenant, and justification! Luther emphasized an unconditional monolateral covenant of grace; Calvin advocated a conditional bilateral covenant of grace. According to Lillback, Calvin "occupies a middle ground between the Schoolmen and Luther on the issue of the acceptance of good works in relationship to justification" (p. 308). This is an alarming conclusion to say the least. Many may think of Calvin and his soteriology quite differently after reading this book. There are two sections in the book. The first deals with the development of covenant thought during the Reformation period; the second deals with Calvin's development and understanding of covenant theology. Lillback does a good job presenting Calvin's viewpoint of good works, conditionality, justification, sanctification, perseverance, and the sacraments in relation to the covenant of grace. Also, Lillback does a good job showing how Calvin "resolved" the tensions between the Old Covenant and New Covenant. In fact, the author states that the New Covenant, according to Calvin, can be broken and is conditional (p. 264)! One may think that the Calvinistic doctrine of "eternal security" or "perseverance of the saints" may be incompatible with such notions. Also, Lillback discusses how Calvin did not see the pre-fall covenant with Adam as strictly legal and meritorious, but also gracious and merciful. This may raise alarm bells for many traditional Reformed theologians since it tends to undermine the Federalists notion of two "Adams" and the full imputation of Christ's righteousness to the elect. Many can see that Lillback is trying to tie Calvin with the likes of Daniel Fuller, Thomas Schreiner, Scott Hafemann, Don Garlington, and Norman Shepherd. In a way, one can detect that Lillback is trying to picture Calvin as a mediator between Romanism and Protestantism. I believe that Calvin was more "grace-oriented" than Lillback allows. Calvin in one of his famous commentaries teaches that weak and immature faith is just as much "saveable" as is strong faith (XVII, p. 311). Thus, Calvin recognized that some true believers do not live or possess the degree of faith as they should. Regardless of some of these disagreeable points, this book is a good introduction to Calvin's development and contribution to Reformed covenant thought.

Much more than an analysis of Calvin on Covenant, this is a really helpful discussion of the historical development of Covenant Theology in general. Exposing various past misconceptions of Covenant Theology's roots, and carefully documenting its distinct progression through various reformers, Lillback in this work skillfully paints his picture with primary source material.

He details how the concept of covenant in the Reformed tradition is much more than a section in a confession or a chapter in a systematic theology, but is an integrating principle or presupposition which functions as a paradigm, regulating and informing not only every area of theology, but our entire relation to God in history and eternity.

This work will be very useful also for the careful gathering and exposition of numerous quotes from Calvin and others, detailing what distinguishes Reformed theology from Lutheranism, on such things as the relation between law and gospel, the relation between Justification and Sanctification, and the role of the Law in the life of the believer.

There is so much more here of value which could be mentioned, I'll just mention one other: the relation of the covenant to the sacraments, namely how one's view of either the mutuality or one-sidedness of the covenant impacts whether the covenant meal (Eucharist) is seen as mutual or merely testamentary.

The bibliography here is extensive; the index quite adequate; there are several helpful summary tables and charts; footnotes are (thankfully) at the bottom of the page.

This work is Peter Lillback's Dissertation at Westminster Theological Seminary (PA), completed in 1985. After he turned it in, they set a page limit of 400 pages on dissertations, his being almost twice that (double spaced).

If you are interested in Covenant Theology, the development of Reformation and Post-Reformation thought, Calvin, or simply how you are to understand the relation between faith and obedience, you must purchase this book.

This cozy continuation of Cabot Cove capers is a comfortable visit with old friends. The "Murder, She Wrote" book series is "based on the Universal television series" ostensibly written in the 1st person by Jessica Fletcher, with a little help from Donald Bain.

Jessica has to get out of Cabot Cove sometimes, lest the population be decimated by the need to kill off at least one of their number in every episode ;-) and so this time, she is teaching mystery writing at Schoolman College in bucolic Indiana. Or maybe this is more heavily on the Gothic side of American Gothic than bucolic - well, actually, Grant Wood's American Gothic is a dentist and his niece in Iowa - but anyway - here is our old friend Jessica amidst the cornfields of Indiana when along comes a tornado. No, Toto is not here - and there are no Munchkins to be found - just scheming academics and students trying to get an education amidst the tempests.

After the tornado, (who would have guessed?) there are dead bodies, who may or may not have perished due to natural disaster. And Jessica's on the case, with a little help from her friends back in Cabot Cove - to the chagrin of some of the collegiates, who are decidedly lacking in collegiality. Along the path to "Who or What Dunnit" enlightenment, our authors gently chide the current condition of academia.
Reviewed by TundraVision

Jessica is catch in a tornado while teaching at a University and of course finds herself involved in murder. This mystery novel was interesting and so enjoyable that I read it in 2 days flat. With each Jessica Fletcher mystery novel, they seem to be getting better and better. Be sure to pick this one up. Mrs. Fletcher, keep up the good work!

While it's becoming a little dated (no problem, v.2 is in the works), this is the "must have" book for anyone concerned with pattern classification and scene analysis - not just computer vision, but anything related to pattern classification. It introduces all of the basic techniques and approaches that anyone involved in data reduction and classification should be familiar with: contour search, interval splines, chain encoding, the effects of digitizing the input data, pattern representation and classification, etc. Get it. You'll be glad you did. -Drew

This book was published in 1973 and there have been many advances since. Still I find it provides great exposition of the fundamental concepts. In fact the nearest neighbor algorithms that are now popular are covered in this book and date back to the work of Cover and Hart in the late 1960s. Those new to pattern recognition who think kth nearest neighbor rules are new should read this book to find out exactly when it was really thought up.

For a more up-to-date treatment, see McLachlan's recent book in the Wiley statistics series. However, this book provides valuable explanations of Bayes rules and shows pictorially what the boundaries look like for linear and quadratic classifiers. In fact I borrowed their pictures in Chapter 2 of my book on bootstrap methods.

There is nothing earth-shattering about this novel except the unusual clarity of Kosztolányi's descriptive powers. More so than the novel Anna Édes, however, Skylark puts a burden of thought onto the reader. Kosztolányi only narrates, offering no judgements or opinions, and so his narration is very focused. The translation preserves this and is generally praiseworthy; Kosztolányi's characteristic terse, direct style and colorful phrasing come through unscathed.

This edition has a nice 10 page introduction by Péter Esterházy, which gives interesting information about the author as well as some background information about Hungarian literature. The cover and binding are, in my opinion, quite handsome also.

I generally agree with what the previous reviewer has stated, although I found this short novel (as well as Anna Edes) brilliant and almost totally flawless. A book which I didn't want to finish simply because I truly enjoyed the experience of reading it.

Of course, this an advanced textbook on Time Series. The reader is supposed to have been introduced to the subject, and certainly is looking for a more theoretical treatment.

If you want to learn time series for the first time, this is not the book.

If you want a friendly book, do not see springer's publications.

However, if you want a fair rigourous book, you found it.

I think the exercises are illustrative, but sometimes long.

This text provides a thorough treatment of the time and frequency domain theory for time series data. It provides a rigorous and theoretical treatment. This is a graduate level text for statistics majors. It provides good coverage of ARIMA models. There are also a number of other good texts on time series analysis both theoretical and applied. Some like Koopmans' text and Bloomfield's emphasize the frequency domain and others like Box, Jenkins and Reinsel the time domain. Another excellent recent text is the one by Shumway and Stoffer. Chatfield's monograph provides a concise elementary introduction.

The title of the book is Brain's Winter, and the author is Gary Paulsen. The book starts off when Brian Robenson, who is thirteen years old, is going to see his father in Canada, and he gets into a plane crash. The plane crashes into a lake and it is surrounded by wilderness. Brian has to try to hunt for food but he has never hunted before and does not want to kill any animals. He does not know but winter is coming soon and if he does not get things prepared for the winter he will probably freeze to death. What will happen to Brian when the winter comes?
To start off with, Brain was stranded in the wilderness for 94 days and he had done these things to help him survive. Brian made tools, such as a lance to kill big animals, and some arrowheads for his bow and arrow. He also made things like a vest, a hood, gloves, and he made things like a shoes from the rabbit fur so it keeps his feet warm. Brian learned that you could use everything in the animal. The thing he used most was the meat and the fur. One big event was when the moose attacked Brian. The moose knocked him out and when he woke up the moose was on him with the lance in the chest of the moose. When Brian woke up he was in so much pain, but he had to get the moose back to the shelter because other animals could have eaten it and because there was a lot of food to last him for a long time. Those are some of the big events that Brian had did or faced.
The rating I would give this book is a three because it was a good book but is was boring in some of the parts. Also it was really exciting in other parts and I wanted to keep reading. The book left me with some suspense at the end of the book. I would recommend this book to people because is was a good novel to read in your spare time. Read the novel Brain's Winter and see if Brian gets rescued or if he has to stay in the wilderness longer.

In Brian's Winter, Brian Robeson a 13-year-old boy stranded in the Canadian Wilderness. Learning how to survive on his own. He makes himself a home to sleep and eat. He hunts for food using the tools that he made. He used bow arrows to hunt his dinner and his knife to skin them. Plus it is winter and his clothes are ripped up almost. His clothing is bad. He uses rabbit's skin and deerskin for clothing. He makes snowshoes to walk around in the snow. One last thing he is stranded for 94 days all alone.

What I liked about this story is that it is descriptive; when he kills the moose and skins it. Also when he learns how to make bow arrows, snow shoes. I like this book because it keeps you hanging at the end of each chapter. What I liked about is that you can imagine all the things that Brian does in the wilderness. What I didn't like about the book is sometimes there is nothing going on and it is boring. What I didn't like about the book is when he describes in details when he skins the moose. He is very descriptive then.
The genre of this book is Realistic Fiction. I would probably give it from a scale of 1-5, a four. I like the book, but parts of it was boring. Also some parts you can easily misunderstand. Some parts you can imagine how he feels, just the way he talks. Also when he acts you can understand, why acts that way. All in all I liked this book; I really enjoyed reading this book.

Brian's Winter is one of the best books I have ever read in my life. There are tons of reasons why and I am going to tell you about all of them. But, first we start out with a summary of the book.
The story takes place in Northern Canada, were it has lots of trees and is in the middle of no where. Brian Robeson is 13 years old and is stuck out in the wilderness all by himself. He learns many survival tips right when he sets up camp. He notices the animals will stay away from you if you stay away from them. He gets attacked by a bear twice and figures out that he left his food out. He hunts and makes things out of what he has such as; a vest out of Moose hid and snow shoes out of twigs and yarn. He thinks he heard gunshots when it was a false alarm and almost gets himself killed in the processes. And the ending you will have to find out for yourself.
Brian's Winter is a book that makes you think about the choices he has is to kill an innocent animal to survive. He makes you really think of your loved ones. It is hard to imagine what you would do in the middle of no where with animals that would kill you if they need too. Not seeing a human being for almost a couple of months. It would be very difficult to survive and cope with no one to talk to or none of the technologies you have at home. I would miss home a lot and I don't know if I could survive in the wilderness.
The rating I give this book is a 9 out of 10. Because the book has everything an award-winning book needs. Adventure, feeling, emotion and action. And this book has all of them put into one book. The author (Gary Paulsen) took a great deal of time to write this book and it really paid off! Out of the books I have read this one is definitely the best book.
Brian's Winter was very good and the next time you have a chance you should pick up the book and read it. It has everything you want in a book.

If one ignores the epilogue, this is an excellent book. Tarnas has performed a magnificent task with his historical review of western philosophical thought and development - from Socrates to Camu and Jung with fascinating chapters reviewing the tremondous role of Christian theology (good and bad) in our "western" philosophical development. Portions of the book are a bit dense - but to be fair such is the nature of the material.

The epilogue however is another story. During my career as a physician, I have found that the worst lectures and presentations are given by those who are discussing their own research as opposed to analyzing and synthesizing other people's works. Tarnas falls victim to this hubris. The notion that Grof/Jungian psychodelic regression therapy in which one relive's his or her birthing trauma is an effective therapy for one's current psycho-social maladies is truly comical. On one hand science is experiencing an epistemological crisis, yet LSD tripping confabulations about the traumatic birthing expulsion from the "mother ship" is rigorous psychology? Gimme a break. I will stick with science for now.

This is one of the most important and valuable books I have ever read. I had the feeling throughout that I was being given a great gift, namely: the lucid unravelling--strand by strand--of a whole complex of issues that are so deeply intertwined in the Western psyche that many have become lost in the maze. Remarkably, this book somehow unravelled the puzzle, and left a spacious clarity in my mind--about how we got here, and where we're headed--that has remained with me ever since.

I feel especially compelled to comment on the book's masterful treatment of science. The "Crisis of Science" chapter beautifully summarizes the profound epistemological crisis facing science today. As one physicist put it (Ravi Ravinda), "the greatest discovery of modern science is the discovery of its own limitations." Having myself been raised in a scientific community and employed for much of my professional life as a research physicist and mathematician, I am deeply familiar with the complex issues that Tarnas addresses here. And I was very impressed with the non-polemic accuracy of his interpretations. For example, in his summary of quantum mechanics, Tarnas avoids the often facile and sensationalist interpretations that have become familiar in the popular press, and instead he summarizes in clear conceptual terms the major scientific findings, and their consequent philosophical and ontological implications. Indeed, it was Tarnas' careful and precise treatment of subtle scientific issues--with which I was intimately familiar--that increased my confidence in the scholarly integrity of the book as a whole--which covered many areas with which I am much less familiar.

The epilogue in Richard Tarnas' book is bold, inventive and exciting. This is the part I read first while browsing in the bookstore. It prompted me to buy the book. The balance between the development of Christian thought and secular philosophy is masterfully interwoven in lucid style. When I finished the book and studied the epilogue I realized that the excitement I felt when I first read abstracts of the the epilogue was based on the scientific side of the concepts presented. As a physician and scientist, I have marveled at the speed of technological discovery in the twentieth century. Most of the biological advances were made possible by the Newtonian-Cartesian revolution. While the human genome will soon be completely sequenced, neuroscience still has not revealed the nature of memory and consciousness. Western thought is dependent on our awareness and it is appropriate to incorporate Grof's observations of the transpersonal realm of human understanding in looking to the future development of philosophy. Thirty years of careful research in the psyche produced information of a perinatal consciousness which promises to advance our understanding of the world around us. The other major theme in the epilogue is the narrowing of the gender identity, which also influences our understanding of consciousness. I gained new insights from this book. It should adorn the shelves of every college freshman and every thinking person.

It should have been less a book with pictures and the history as a comic book, and more like a soap opera scrapbook!

Think of it, people. If you have read the All My Children, General Hospital, or The Young and the Restless scrapbooks, you'd see what I mean. It should cover all the years from 1963 to the time of it's publication, full of pictures, an entire cast list of characters and their exact years in the comics, sidebar info, and written paragraphs of each issue since #1 (1963) to whatever issue was last before publishing this book. (As I speak, it's up to Uncanny X-Men #395, August 2001.) After all, the comic books are like soap operas and vice versa!

It should do an Uncanny X-Men scrapbook, then X-Men (now called New X-Men, stupid title), Wolverine, X-Force, X-Factor/Mutant X (even though it cancelled) Generation X (also cancelled) and others.

If it had done that, I would have given this book 5 stars instead of 4.

This book, is a GREAT resource for X-Men fans from all ages, it has tonnes of pics, and it gives you history on many teams and characters from the comics. It has a part about the movie, and the animated series. It has pictures of villains and heroes, and even pics and info from editions like the Phoenix Saga, Age of Apocalypse, and Weapon X! It has 'X-Timelines' it shows you pics of important X-Men related comic books during the years, like when the first Gambit series came out, to the X-Men Manga series, it's a GREAT book!

This'll give newcomers interested in the movies plenty to introduce them to the characters and situations in the two movies. There are several sidebars which outline the differences between the comic book heroes and situations with those of the movie.

It's a great coffee table book as long as you're not ashamed of an interest in comic book heroes, and you shouldn't be. Printed on high quality paper, and profusely illustrated with panels and covers from the original comics, this is an intelligent and comprehensive volume that all present and future X-Man fans should have.

To read this sort of stuff, you really have to be a "Survivor" junkie, and I qualify. I have been with it since the start and don't believe I have missed an episode (though some were eminently missable!).

"The Stingray" came out hoping to capitalize on first "Survivor" winner Richard Hatch's instant fame. The author's big beef is 1) CBS has Survivor cast members so locked up, it's a wonder they can even renew their drivers' license and 2) Richard Hatch "strung him along" and a $500,000 book deal sunk from sight because Richard either was unaware of the lock CBS had on him or thought he could get around it.

Mr. Lance never considers that maybe Richard Hatch was also bummed out about losing $500,000. The book is basically one long whine. Lance constantly reminds us he is a multiple award winning "investigative journalist" and Hatch is well---chopped liver. Richard is a fascinating subject, a man that has reinvented himself more times than you can count, very bright, self-destructive, and some of this information is presented.

Awards aside, this book is atrociously edited and hardly a page goes by without major typos and misspellings. The organization is non-existent. Mr. Lance is much given to "More on THIS later" type statements, only there never is any "more." The author constantly zings Hatch with "you knew how to win a million dollars; but you didn't know what to do after you got it."

Well, now it is two years later. Richard seems to be doing ok, and he has been resurrected as the Prime Survivor. All other Survivors are compared to Richard and found lacking. Latest Survivor winner Brian Haydik, who could probably give a whole new meaning to the phrase "coldly ambitious", is believed to have modeled his strategy on Hatch's game. At the time of Richard's win, he was the man you loved to hate, and Peter Lance sneered that would be his undoing. Not necessarily so. Viewers gradually realized you could be Charley-nice-guy and get booted off the island, or you could Outwit, Outplay, and Out Mean everyone else and come home with a million dollars.

Many of the interviews in this book are second-hand, even at the time the book was printed. I gave the book a second star for the occasional insights into Hatch's character. Otherwise, a waste of time.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer

I was a total fan of Survivor I and I can unequivocally say that NOBODY has written a book about this series as good as THE STINGRAY, Lethal Tactics of The Sole Survivor by Peter Lance. Not Richard Hatch or even Mark Burnett. Lance, who's an investigative reporter who once worked for ABC News is the only one to step back and take any kind of honest objective look at this media phenomenon called "reality" TV. For the few people alive who DIDN'T see SRUVIVOR I it's a great play by play. For those devoted fans of the series like me, there are dozens of inside, behind the scenes scraps of info, like how the producers chose Sean and Jenna as the ambassadors over Kelly and Greg and how Stacey tried to organize the castaways in a summer "alliance" to boycott the Finale reunion show, only to have Richard Hatch break the "alliance" and run back to CBS with word. This resulted in everybody doing the show for $10,000 even though CBS got something like $12 million. What's really interesting is that on Lance's website www. thestingray.net, he's got a source working on the crew of SURVIVOR II. I also see on his website that he is signing his book all over the United States. I'm hoping that Peter Lance writes a book about SURVIVOR II because if it's anything like THE STINGRAY it's sure to be a non stop page turning read.

I could not put this book down! 5/5

"The Stingray" should be called "The Bible of Survivor Hopefuls". A great read! The book explains not only behind the scenes details of SURVIVOR, that CBS is trying by all possible means so hard to hide, but also what can happen, good and bad, to individuals (mostly Richard Hatch but also Dirk, Stacey and to a lesser extent Sean and Kelly) placed "within the game". He uses Richard's life experiences in getting a greater depth of understanding of how and why Hatch acted as he did. Due to CBS's highly restrictive gag orders on all the contestants most of Lance's information is otherwise NOT AVAILABLE ANYWHERE ELSE.

I think that Lance is doing a great service to the public by bringing up his strong points about the producer's program manipulations and CBS's severely restrictive contracts. If the networks take a serious look at making their programs fairer or at lessening the lifelong legal stranglehold on participants then 90% of the credit for this change must go to Lance for being the first to expose the problems. What was previously thought of as "Lance's conspiracy theory" in certain circles is now coming to light with the David vs. Goliath lawsuit of Stacey Stillman. Hopefully the details of the depths of network manipulation of the contestants will not be hidden from the public by an out of court settlement by a frightened CBS. Hopefully the case will go to trial and under oath make the truth public. Lance will no doubt be there to tell us about it as it develops.

My only criticisms are that with Lance having referenced the restrictiveness of the ability of the contestants (or anyone such as production crew, for that matter) to speak with him I would have liked more details and analyses of the various contracts the contestants are required to sign as well as how they compare with SAG and AFTRA contracts. We heard of offers that certain contestants were unable to accept but I am interested in more details of those that they accepted. I expect that this was due to the fact that his book was rushed to press and all information was not yet available to him. Also, Lance references Burnett's book on more than one occasion. Having read that book first it made certain aspects easier to understand that Lance could have covered in more detail. I truly hope that Lance continues his digging, his investigation and follows up this book with a second book which would outline and explain all the specific documents that CBS requires the contestants to sign and follow through by looking at all the contestants to see if/how their SURVIVOR I and II experience positively/negatively affected their lives one-two years down the road. All current lawsuit information should be updated and explained in layman's terms. The SURVIVOR phenomenon is a social experiment in action and should be followed up as things develop. Lance is in the perfect position to do this.

If anyone is considering applying for SURVIVOR this book is not a "should read" book but rather a "must read" book. Prior to reading "The Stingray" at age 40 I was an excited hopeful SURVIVOR contestant. After reading "The Stingray", even if selected I'm not sure that I would "sign my life away" even if it would bring me a million (or $530,000 after taxes) and fame.. I have learned that the "true enemies" are not the other contestants but rather the tyrannical control of the "eye" network, all this thanks to Lance. This information alone is worth 10x the price of the book. Keep up the good work. SURVIVOR FANS: 5/5 "Other readers": 3/5

I just returned from a month in India, traveling with both the Lonely Planet (9th ed.) and Rough Guide (3rd ed.) If you are considering a long trip across the breadth of India, I would strongly suggest taking BOTH books. The Lonely Planet is great for practical details (train times, phone numbers, etc.) but spends too much space reviewing individual restaurants and hotels. Even though the book tops out over 1000 pages, the sections devoted to actually explaining the sights and the wonderful culture and history of India are very short.

In contrast, the Rough Guide spends much more space discussing the background and culture of individual locations, and is packed with lots of interesting details not found in the Lonely Planet. The RG spends less space on restaurant/hotel reviews, which was perfectly fine - I'd rather know more about the places I'm visiting than worry how much chicken shahjani costs at some particular restaurant.

The tone and approach of the books are different too - the RG takes a much more optimistic, romantic view of India, while the LP is often so terse and cynical that it doesn't really inspire you to visit many wonderful places.

Get the LP for the listings. Get the RG to appreciate the beauty of India.

This edition of "Lonely Planet India" is better than the previous one, which was very very good itself. Despite the immensity of India and the numberless topics and regions that therefore have to be covered, the authors have done an excellent job indeed. Some weaknesses are inevitable, and this is perhaps why this is not one of LP's masterpieces, but it is indeed inevitable for travel guidebooks to be the better, the smaller the region they cover - this is why this book should perhaps be complemented with the individual LP guides to different Indian regions. But in itself, this book does cover most of what a visitor will need or want to know. And in a place that is chaotic and tough for foreigners like India, this may indeed be an essential tool for the less experienced travellers. The coverage of places to stay and eat is absolutely excellent, not just for the major cities but also for minor towns and sites (the authors would indeed seem to have been on every single square foot of land in India !). The section on permits and other legal matters is of immense value to anyone, and well up-to-date. And of course, the sections and special chapters on history, culture, religion, are extremely well written, great for the traveller and the armchair reader alike. Even though the best discoveries are those a traveller will make herself / himself, this guidebook is surely a great tool and help in anyone's discovery of this wonderful land. All in all, a masterpiece despite its limitations. A weakness is of course that things being as they are in India, information is subject to change, and some may have become out-of-date by the time this book was printed. But this is of course inevitable, and it simply means that - as in any country - a traveller should not rely on only a guidebook, but make a considerable effort to grasp as much as possible of current circumstances on her / his own.

When Lonely Planet India first appeared in 1981, it raised the standard for all India guidebooks in the comprehensiveness of locations covered and the detailed information useful to independent travelers, especially those on lower budgets. Twenty years later, it remains the guidebook I personally rely upon most, despite my familiarity with India from extensive travels since 1980 researching my historical novels such as India Treasures. I first learned about that wonderful nonprofit home-stay organization Servas from a Lonely Planet guide, which led to many of our best experiences in India, including lasting friendships. Although my wife and I aren't backpackers, and we're probably mid-range in terms of the amount we spend on accommodations and food, the book is extremely helpful. It's the most up to date and highly detailed regarding such information as transportation options within India, the scams travelers can encounter, and a wealth of other tips too numerous to get into in a brief review.

Given the India guidebook's thickness and weight, I've found it convenient to cut it into sections and only take the parts with me for the regions I plan to visit. It's still desirable to get supplemental maps for any city or region one plans to spend much time in, as the maps in the book are usually pretty minimal in terms of detail. And other guidebooks do indeed have useful information this one doesn't (browse the travel shelves in your favorite bookstore to find the additional guides most suitable for your own interests and style of travel). I also advocate reading the better novels set in India, to experience insights into daily life that guidebooks can only hint at.

No single guidebook on India can be all things to all persons for all occasions, but this one surely comes the closest, especially for travelers who don't have their arrangements taken care of on organized tours.