The book which borders on suspense since the main character, Ali, is the hunted and not the one in pursuit is clever in the plot. Ali at first is a bit cool, but you start rooting for her as she tries to fulfill her agenda. A great book for a escapist weekend or airplane flight.

This book seems more than adequate for those who already have a hold on advanced mathematics and want a comprehensive guide to a new subject. The layout is utilitarian and serves well enough...

Although this book is used in introductory differential equation courses, it contains too few worked examples to work as an introductory text. The student who uses this book should have some (not a lot, but some) background on the subject, even if they get that knowledge from the professor's lecture. My professor gave formulas for reduction of order and variation of parameters that were easier to use than those given in the book. Then again, he explained the topic so well that I hardly had to use the book except for homework, and I still got an A+. The book is well written, but perhaps better suited for an intermediate differential equations course.

I have to admit I haven't read this book in detail - just browsed throught it at a bookstore. But I have studied a number of other ODE books, including Boyce and DiPrima, and looked at this to clarify a bit of confusion on the method of undetermined coefficients. It was very clear, clearer than Boyce. Also there seemed to be numerous examples of various methods, and a wide selection of methods in both ODE's and PDE's for an elementary textbook. My general impression was that it is rather similar to Boyce, but even clearer. Perhaps these books are a bit advanced for some beginning students though?