As an unchallenged high school student 30 years ago, I never really put much effort into either algebra or trig and still managed to ace my tests. This lack of a rigorous algebraic and trigonometric foundation killed me in subsequent college calculus courses. This book fixed that problem, 30 years later! If you are looking for a book to challenge a motivated high school student, this is the book. I loaned it to one such student after I finished it and she very quickly completed a year and a half of high school algebra and trig in one summer and went on to ace honors calculus that fall.

For myself, I picked up this book several years ago and started my math re-education. There are numerous margin exercises that are to be completed immediately after a new concept is introduced in a section plus 50-70 section end exercises. These exercises directly reinforce what you have just studied. There are numerous sections in each chapter. This layout is really nice because as a self study, it normally took me several days to complete a chapter and if I had to wait to do exercises at the end of each chapter, I am positive my retention would have been much lower and my frustration higher, leading to a consequent lowering of motivation. Fortunately, just the opposite happened with this book. Every time I completed a section I was motivated to learn more which reduced the time required to complete each chapter. Finally each chapter has a chapter review then a comprehensive chapter test. If you miss a question in the chapter review, the answer section point to the relevant section for review.

Every margin, chapter review and chapter test exercise has the answer in the back of the book. The section-end exercises have only odd answers in the back of the book, but this is not a significant problem. I noticed several things about these exercises at the end of each section. The exercises are not just "make work" but increasingly challenge the reader. The exercises are such that they catch and expose deficiencies in math manipulation skills. If you are weak in some area of algebraic manipulation, it becomes readily apparent in the exercises. The even numbered exercises are variations on the odd numbered exercises. If you can do the odd exercises, you'll be able to do the even exercises and so not require the answers in the back. If you messed up the odd exercise and understand the nature of the mistake, you can still do the even numbered exercise with confidence.

The Trig section is short (3 chapters) and dense. Again problems are uniformly excellent. The chapter on trigonometric identities makes the book worth its price by itself and pays off handsomely when studying calculus and you are attempting to solve integrals via trigonometric substitution. There are three additional chapters introducing linear algebra, conic sections and sequences.

The book makes use of decent artwork and has technology sections utilizing graphing calculators, but is comprehensive without having such a calculator. Despite the hefty cost for a large format paperback, this book is definitely worth it. The binding has proven to be extremely durable. I just wish I had this book so many years ago. My college math courses would have been so much more enlightening.

I'm an adult learner who has always had trouble with math. This was the text in pre-Calc. Provides (1) clear, step by step instruction, (2) uncomplicated margin exercises to reinforce basic concepts, (4) lots of good practical problems, (5) a sea of drill problems, (6) chapter review exercises and (7) chapter tests. I refer to this book regularly. I wish these folks would do a Calculus book!

As a non-traditional student of 35 returning to undergraduate university, I had tested into Calculus but as the semester progressed, it bacame apparent that the intervening years had taken their toll on my math basics. It was clear that even as I struggled to understand the new material, I had either forgotten my basics or never learned them well. This lack was seriously impeding learning the new material. I finally took a review course with this book, re-took the calculus, graduated cum laude, went on for Masters degrees, and am now working on my doctorate. This book cut through all the "math-ese" to understanding the basics of the calculations, not just regurgitating the material. The authors also seem to be able to focus on exactly where people routinely have problems in a very understandable language. It is not an exaggeration to say a single book can be pivotal in one's success.

I highly recommend this book to any parent,family member,physician, therapist ,etc who has a child or deals w/ a child that has Arthrogryposis. This book is very informational, covers a lot about various characteristics of a child w/ AMC. This easy to read book will be and asset to anyone who reads it.

This book is written very well. I highly recommend it if you are trying to find out more about Arthrogyposis and how to treat it. It covers everything from explanations about the disability to types of corrective surgeries commonly used to ideas for splinting & bracing. It can be a little graphihc though since it has color photos of surgeries and children that are at times really involved. But it is realistic and understandable and equips you with good information. I bring it to any new therapy sessions to inform therapists and doctors who aren't familiar with AMC.

WITH SO MANY DOCTORS NEVER SEENING A CHILD OR ADULT WITH AMC. THIS BOOK WILL HELP YOU UNDERSTAND AND BEABLE TO INSURE THAT YOUR GETTING THE RIGHT CARE. IT IS OVERWELLING TO BE TOLD YOU CHILD HAS AMC BUT AFTER READING THIS BOOK YOU WILL KNOW WHAT TO DO FOR HIM/HER. I TAKE IT TO EVERY DOCTORS APPOINTMENT AND USE THE INFORMATION IN THIS BOOK ALL THE TIME. AS FAR AS I AM CONCERNED THIS BOOK IS WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN GOLD.

Start your day right...sounds like an adage from a cereal commerical doesn't it? While why not start your day with the right nutrition for the soul. This powerful devotional can give you the spiritual vitamins you need to jump start your morning. It contains the collection of really insightful and inspired readings from the great preachers, saints, writers from the past and present. You gather all the wisdom filled with hope and advice from Billy Graham, Corrie Ten Boom, Catherine Marshall, C. S. Lewis, Charles Swindoll, Dwight L. Moody, Calvin Miller and many more. If you want a meditative reading, a quick inspiration or a scripture reminder to grow in God's grace you'll find it in this beautifully laid out devotional. This is a refreshing, spirit-lifter you don't want to be without it.

These daily devotionals not only are encouragement to any person, but powerful challenges to fully trust God and live for him. They are profound and in depth; obviously, Judith Couchman spent a lot of time putting together some of the most powerful messages from some of our greatest teachers and theologins. It's a must for any Christian seeking to know God and the power of His love more.

Buy this devotional! It is a rare jewel. Unlike the vast majority of devotionals today, this one will get under your skin and let the Lord speak to you in profound ways. Yet is is easy and pleasant to read. Obviously, Ms. Couchman deserves tremendous credit for her labor of love in gleaning these passages from books that so few of us will ever have time to read for ourselves. Cudos to Judith Couchman!

I can't begin to explain the way this book makes you feel. Reading this book made me want to get out in the world and do something nice for someone else. This is a book I will want to read over and over again, and HIGHLY recomend you read it!

What a wonderful book! It pushes all the right buttons, in all the right ways. What more could a reader who needs motivation ask for! These stories are phenomenal, and they deserve everyone's attention. If you have not read it, do so, and if you have think of someone you have not recommended it to, that you could. It's a message worth sending, and, as the book shows, no positive effort is ever wasted! I LOVE this book!

Although I worked on this book with Jackie (I photographed many of the people who are profiled within), it is, of course difficult for me to be unbiased. But after meeting twenty of these exceptional people, it is hard to come away from this book untouched. They are truly an inspiration to us all, with Jackie at front of the class - leading the pack. I am thrilled to be associated with a book like this, a book that can motivate us all to get up and DO SOMETHING FOR OTHERS!

I came across this book at the Dearborn Arab-American Festival, the largest Arab festival in North America. And I'm so glad I did. Vivid illustrations, and an engrossing storyline. Heide reveals a very realistic Cairo street life, unknown to most Western adults, and here very easy for kids to relate to through the eyes of the young child, Ahmed. I smiled as I read and saw different scenes, like the rose-water man, remembering walking through Cairo and seeing those very people. The scenes are gritty- not white-washed; yet also very relationally connected, with people caring for each other and showing true hospitality- kareem- the hallmarks of Cairo life. This child isn't a terrorist; it's a young child; it's real life. When he finally reveals his secret, it's the joy of a child first learning to read, just like any Western or American child. But he's also truly Egyptian- he presents his name in Arabic.

After we read this, I and the children in the library learned to write our names in Arabic, and then we *had* to get some rosewater ice cream, in order to fully immerse ourselves in the book. If you can get ahold of it, I would highly recommend!

An especially beautiful and thought-provoking book. The story transports us to Cairo, Egypt, where we are invited to observe a day in the life of a young Egyptian boy who sells gas canisters to help his family. A must read if you are interested in learning about other cultures, and about the lives of millions of children around the world. The authors capture the culture, a sense of the language (poetic), the spirit of the people, as well as their philosophy of life. We even get some idea of the geography and history of Egypt; and all of this in a children's book. This is truly an wholistic piece of work. The illustrator does a marvelous job of capturing the sights and colors of Cairo. I have been so impressed by this book as to have recommended it to countless students and teachers in the school system where I teach. I have even been moved to write and thank the authors, who graciously responded.

I love this book because it conveys better than any book I've seen the magic of the breakthrough to literacy. The excitement of this working class boy who will now embark upon a whole new world because he has the first tool captures a precious moment in every child's life - and all this is accomplished with a text and illustrations that are bright and alive.

What can I say,this is just simply a beautiful collection of poems. Sometimes I go outside, read one and just sink into the loveliness of the wild around me. These poems just really are beautiful. Highly recommended

From The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books:

With this graceful book, Coleman and Masheris offer children the best reason to cherish both nature and poetry--for the sheer beauty of it. Coleman's twenty-one poems open with an invitation.

"Bicycle Trip

A poem
is like an
unplanned
trip by bicycle.
The wind of Words
blows in your ears.
Jack-in-the-pulpits.
Lady Slippers
become the handlebars.
You begin to understand
fireplugs shining in the sun,
the wild toss of bachelor buttons.
The limits of the street change, shrink--
two lane highways, a country road.
Then with an unexpected lurch
thought turns into a side dirt path
where stones and pine straw lie
and hickories grow, shaggy and gray.
A lake opens, a mountain roars.
Surprised, you're part of the landscape.

The movement of short lines to long reflects an gradually widening view, both visually and imaginatively, and the illustration that envelopes the poem also extends it across the page into a delicately tinted jungle if wildflowers. Various animals, plants, and habitats figure in the poems and pictures that follow, all bearing a close complementary relationship to one another and to the reader. This is a book that poetry buffs will want to linger over and that readers new to poetry will find alluring.

This collection of poems by Mary Ann Coleman is wonderful. She has a special way of making the simplest detail in nature awe-inspiring. The illustrations are stunning! I highly recommend it to children and adults alike.

If you love companion parrots, especially cockatoos, you will probably appreciate this book. I found the book was more about the life of the Topping family, though, which I also happened to find fun and interesting to read about. The book is fast-paced and upbeat as it delivers funny snippets from the author's life with her "baby boy" - any cockatoo owner can easy relate. However, I would have enjoyed more real stories about Charlie rather than the focus on sensationalistic "one-liners" from Charlie. The last chapter takes a dramatic turn and left me sobbing - I don't think the tone or abruptness of the ending added anything to the book and is definitely not for the faint of heart. Overall, though, the book is well worth the read. It left me wishing I had known Charlie, as well as his family.

I fell in love with the beautiful bird, and I admire the way story is presented. It is funny, it is personable and written with a great talent. Audrey Topping helps one to appreciate the wonderful world of birds and animals.

"Charlie's World" is very well written book. I was reminded of the time when Audrey was ten years old, and came to the house with two crows on her shoulders. Both crows were talkers. Audrey is an exceptionally good writer, and the book is a MUST for all. I had to read it in One sitting.

For the totally nonRussian speaking English speaker, this is definitely the definitive Akhmatova (...say that ten times fast...). Not only are all her poems here (over 800), but we get a host of other useful things like introductory essays, an essay by Isaiah Berlin, chronology, notes, and tons of beautiful pictures of the beautiful poet herself.

Akhmatova is one of the premier 20th century poets, and it is a shame that her reputation is still only establishing itself among English speaking countries. This volume should help in that regard. However, it must be strongly emphasized that readers who hear Akhmatova only in English are really missing most of the beauty of her poems. Russian poetry is musically beautiful, and this is NOT carried over into the Enlglish, although it must be granted that Hemschemeyer does make some pretty valiant attempts to do just this.

So the reason for the four stars is that there is no Russian in this edition. Granted, the size of it would hardly permit it. So I would ask that people complement it with an edition of Akhmatova's poems in the original, and either learn cyrillic or get someone who can read them to read them to you! You will hardly recognize them, they are so beautiful. She is a master of alliteration, assonance and rhyme... all of these being so important to her lyricism.

I actually bought this edition, and when I found there was no Russian, I returned it and got Hemschemeyer's "Selected Poems of Anna Akhmatova" instead, which only has 100+ poems but has the Russian on the opposing pages. It was sad to have to do this, but after I sat down and read through some of the poems, I realized I had made the right decision. What I miss most are the pictures...

Akhmatova was one of the few unrepentant Acemist poets to survive Russia's Bolshevik revolution and subsequant Stalinist takeover and purges. She was seen by authorities as a dangerous element, related to the pre-revolutionary order. Somehow, even as her fellow poets - including friend Osip Mandlestam and husband Nikolay Gumilov - were executed, exiled, sent to camps, or fled, she managed to survive - outliving Stalin himself. Her poems range from the early tales of love and unrequitation, to the tormented later works such as Requium - a harrowing dedication to the victoms of Stalinism. Her use of words is fantastic - the reader can truly feel her presence. This collection is very comprehensive, and well-translted from the original Russian. Definately worth the $21.

Finally, the poems of one of my favorite authors are out in one book, and what a book this is! For lovers of graceful, touching, heartfelt poetry, but also for those who are interested in that period of Russian history between the twilight of the Czars and the horror of Stalin, Akhmatova's poetry covers a very wide spectrum. She wrote of love and nature. She wrote about and for her friends. She wrote about her personal tragedies and the tragedy of her country. If you have never read Akhmatova, do yourself a favor and discover her in this magnificent translation by Judith Hemschmeyer: translating poetry is particularly tricky, but the job is superbly done here, because it feels as if the author had written her verses in English, not Russian. If you like what you have read, or if you already appreciate Akhmatova's style and are interested in more about her life, nothing better than the book by Roberta Reeder on Anna Akhmatova. Reeder has also edited this volume and her love for the work of a great poet is evident. These "Complete Poems" are truly complete and satisfiying, ordered chronologically, supported by biographical material, photographs, and an astonishing section of notes. A book for the poetry lover in us, and also a book for the student. I must also say that the translation of "Requiem," my favorite poem by Akhmatova, is one of the best I have read. My only complaint has to do with the binding: this is a paperback, and we all know what happens to paperbacks, and at 948 pages this one may break fairly soon. My advice is to buy it nonetheless, and also buy one of those plastic, self-adhesive covers on sale in most big bookstores, protect the book with it and, as an additional touch, put one more layer of the hard plastic on the spine, so it'll reinforce it better and your book will last a lot longer. At least that is what I did with my copy and after almost two years it still looks new. So, a great collection, indeed, by a great poet, and by people who truly cared about her art. Five stars is the maximum, but I would give it more.

Unlike most Holocaust literature, this collection, though it starts in Hungary, focuses on life after the Holocaust. I enjoyed the early stories more - the ones that showed how Dana's parents met and lived in Hungary both before and after the war. Once they get to Canada, we mostly see the various schools Dana attends and how her parents adjust -- the heartbreaking part is that her strong father, Apu, has the wind taken out of his sails once he leaves Hungary. Her once strong father walks with stooped shoulders. I did enjoy this collection and would recommend it. There's something lacking (perhaps lack of soul or depth) that prevents the reader from becoming 100% engaged, but it's hard to put your finger on it. Nonetheless, an impressive debut.

For those who believe literature can assist us in understanding the past and recurrent terror of unparallelled loss, of the virtual effacement of a people that is the Holocaust, "The County of Birches" will stand proudly and with dignity in their libraries. This extraordinarily well-crafted series of interlocking short stories, treating the experiences of Dana, the daughter of two survivors, compels the intellectual and emotional attention of the reader. For this novel is an excursion into geographic, temporal and existential displacement. We come to perceive life through Dana's eyes, a prescient child who begrudgingly accepts the precarious balance of her life and her parents' perceptions of survival - that a false step leads to abyss, that being Jewish in the post-Holocaust world poses terrible ethical quandires unknown and of no concern to the outside world, that present childhood carries the unfathomable weight of the past, of generations obliterated, of families literally disappearing. The author, Judith Kalman, has produced a dazzling, memorable and significant first novel.

Dana Weisz is no ordinary protagonist. She shoulders the seemingly herculean task of being a child of survivors, one a proud, defiant mother whose integrity provides strength to Dana, the other, a once-aristocratic, now-humbled father whose quiet, "mysterious" love provides comfort and identity. At once, Dana senses her very existence as a replacement for her murdered half-sister but feels guilty even living a "normal" life, perceiving her own "normal" concerns as superfluous to her parents, given the trauma they have experienced.

To be Jewish under these circumstances produces its own internal ambivalence. "What good had it brought any of them being Jewish...[Name] one time it ever proved an advantage to be Jewish." When her parents aggressively promote academic prowess in her older sister, Lillian, they claim: "With your brains...there is nothing you can't do." Dana responds that anything is easy "if your standard was being gassed, tortured or stripped of everything you hold dear; the rest would seem a breeze." Kalman is at her best when she describes Dana's devastating encounter with contemporary Jewish indifference (circa 1965) to the Holocaust. Dana's experiment in Sabbath school results in her being profoundly insulted by her Jewish classmates who make crass jokes about the Holocaust when they examine a Life magazine twenty-year retrospective.

Judith Kalman's stirring narrative alone, which encompasses three generations of history and three distinct geographic settings, distinguishes this novel. But Ms. Kalman peppers her stories with sentences about the Holocaust that hit home very, very hard. This rather compact novel has unbelievable impact. It is not an easy or quick read; it forces the reader to stop, to ponder, to question, to try to understand. The author serves both history and memory admirably.

This collection of short stories is certainly exceptional. I couldn't put the book down after I picked it up. Anyone even remotely interested in Holocaust or post-holocaust literature absolutely has to read this collection. It is both powerful and moving, evoking startlingly beautiful description and poetry. If you read one more book in your life this absolutely has to be it.

I have never been able to get my hands on the fourth book in this series, so this one was a bit hard to follow. Especially since I read it before reading number three. I must admit, I found it rather boring. And does the author have something against the Fedorcenkos? It wasn't as sad as the third one, but it was still a tear-jerking book.

The story is shifted away from Anna and toward Marianna in this book, however it is no less interesting. All seven books in the series get five stars from me!

The Russian series has been one of the best I've read. There is so much history out there that I have never really learned much about, and these books make it exciting to expereince history. You become so engrossed in the characters and the story as it goes through the Russian history and learn so much as you view it through the eyes of each character.The author makes you feel as if you are right there and know these people personally. In this book, as the people face another war, you feel the devastation and desperation they felt.I also love how the author interweaves faith and trust in God throughout the story in the characters lives. The books are very hard to put down and you'll want to read the entire series.