I work with people who are grieving and the response to those to whom I have given the book was overwhlmingly positive.

I hardily recommend highly!!

The book introduces you in detail to Michael (Mickey) Schwerener and all the details leading up to his murder. This detail will help you understand exactly why and how these murders took place.

This latest edition includes updates by the author to compare his early speculation against the results of the trial.

You will not be disappointed with this book - great value at twice the price - I for one will be looking forward to further publications from the same author.

"Ambition soared on mad wings, and he saw himself climbing the heights with her, pleasuring in beautiful and noble things with her. It was a soul-possession he dreamed, refined beyond any grossness, a free comradeship of spirit that he could not put into definite thought." -- The youth becomes a man.

London's prose is straightforward and vibrant, much like the author at his best. Martin Eden falls victim to the vicissitudes of his fame and fortune, much like the author at his worst (too much hard living is often given as the reason for London's death at forty). London spends a lot of time in this book criticizing American materialism in the way that materialism ought to be criticized. He also displays a certain kind of American work ethic (five hours of sleep a night, perseverance through failure, etc.) that sometimes doesn't know what to do with itself once it achieves success. We should all have that problem--just hope that we deal with it better than young Martin Eden does. A very worthwhile read.

The best part of the book by far is the ending, wherein London remains artistically and thematically true to himself and to his readers, and thereby renders the book unpalatable for mass consumption. As Nietzsche puts it, "I love him who is abashed when the dice fall to make his fortune, and asks, 'Am I then a crooked gambler?' For he wants to perish" There is also the influence and theme of that most anomolous of the books of The Bible, Ecclesiastes, which is, again, more overtly evident in London's John Barleycorn: "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?"

This book has its faults, but indiffence to the very pulse of life and to the vagaries of the human condition is not one of them. I can't imagine any lover of and struggler with words and life coming away from Martin Eden unmoved.

As for Parson Adams he well may be a saintly man but surely someone other than myself finds his lack of tact, condenscending tone and total innocence extremely irritating.

This volume is has some decent material, but is marred by a tendecy to sloppiness.

Firstly, as other reviewers have noted, there are too many authors (count 'em - 16!), which is unnecessary, and leads to inconsistencies in presentation. The book could quite easily have been authored by a single writer. There are only a few chapters that required specialist knowledge.

For example, the early chapters are quite good at advising the reader on PHP settings. Since there's no option explicit in PHP,the author correctly advises the reader to increase their error setting to report unused variables. Later, however, much of the code uses uninitialised variables. This is particularly the case in the chapter on form handling, the approach to which is too crude, and uses form variables directly in code, whereas a better approach would be to capture them and process them using isset(). The isset() function isn't even covered in this chapter,but is used correctly in other chapters.

Secondly, while the converstational tone of Wrox books is often appealing, it can also be a problem at times. The presentation is not always comprehensive enough, and Wrox authors have a tendency to give overly clever examples.

Strangely, there's no reference section. I found some of the explanations sloppy and confusing, especially the section of session variables. (I still can't get the WAP application to work properly.)

Thirdly, the chapter on OO design leaves the reader stranded. After a decent theoretical discussion, the writer informs the reader that there will be no code examples, as the reader now knows enough theory to work an example out for themselves! If I've paid for the book, I don't really want to have it set homework for me.

Fourthly, there are an annoying number of errors in the code. Many of these are corrected in the online errata, but there are quite a few that aren't at present. Furthermore, some of them are not typos, but seem to be the result of misconceptions on the part of the writer. This tends to reinforce the impression that some of the authors are relatively inexperienced.

Lastly, there are a large number of errors in the downloadable code. I suppose supplied code should be seen as a bonus, but it's poor quality control, and greatly adds to the user's annoyance.

My first impression of Baxter & Rennie's 'Financial Calculus' was that it was unnecessary and a waste of money. My opinion reversed completely after realizing (under prodding by a physics colleague who's an expert on sde's) how badly Hull's approach to sde's really is. Also, the systematic derivation of Black-Scholes from the assumption of a replicating, self-financing strategy is very nice. As Feynman said, we don't really understand a result until
we can derive it from many different viewpoints. The method is not really different in principle from the standard short derivation given in Hull, but it does provide a nice, clear example of what is meant by replication and self-financing in the terminology of Brownian motion/sde's. A problem with the book is that one must first learn the rudiments of options elsewhere (Hull, Bodie & Merton): this is not a text for beginners.

A word of warning: empirically seen, the results presented by the book (Black-Scholes and near-B-S) are empirically wrong. The authors present the theory as if it would be biblical, handed down by god, giving the reader no hint that the economic-financial problems discussed there merely abstractly-mathematically are not at all solved by the models presented in the text. For example, the empirical returns distribution is very far from Gaussian and is volatile (the empirical returns diffusion coefficient depends on both returns x and time t) whereas the returns pde in the B-S model has a constant diffusion coeficient. In other words, typical of mathematicians and 'financial engineers' who are not concerned with fundamentals, B&R seem not to be bothered by the fact that the B-S theory cannot be patched up and saved by a perturbative approach. Instead, a completely different starting point than lognormal pricing is required (see my paper with Gunaratne on the empirical distribution of returns and correspondingly correct option pricing).

One very important problem though is the TOTAL LACK of empirical examples and comments on the practical relevance of the various models introduced, which is crucial in any applied field. The text does not give any insight into the limits of the models presented and may lead the uninformed reader to jump to dangerous conclusions as to the applicability of some of the models presented.

There is also a certain amount of lack of scientific transparency involved: the reader is shown two similar-looking curves, one representing geometric Brownian motion and one representing the FTSE index as a 'justification' of the lognormal model for stock prices. The inadequacy of the lognormal model for stock prices is a well known fact with important consequences and should be mentioned in a text meant for students and beginners. For example, little is said about the volatility smile, market imperfections and related issues.

In short, this book is a good introduction to "mathematical finance" -considered as a branch of probability theory, probably the best introductory text written to this day. However it remains a book written by mathematicians with little relevance to finance or (real) financial markets.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading it!

This is a fun book. It's filled with eccentric characters that make it a pleasure to read. I often found myself chuckling or laughing at their behavior. However, as a mystery it leaves a little to be desired since solving the murder often takes a back seat to the antics of the brides and Meg trying to deal with them. Still, I found the book a pleasure to read. The characters come off as believable and not caricatures. The romantic sub-plot with Michael is amusing because we as the reader know what's going on, even if Meg has no clue. By the end of the book, the mystery has been solved and all the plots tied up, leaving me anxious for more.

An interesting note is that instead of chapters, the author breaks the action down by day. It makes for rather uneven breaks in the narrative, but it's also easier to keep track of the passing time since the plot takes place over two months.

In lesser hands, this book would have fallen flat, but in her debut, Donna Andrews proves what a superb writer she is. I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the Meg Langslow series.

Talk about a downer of a summer. Three relatives have selected Meg Langslow to be their bridesmaid. Though she would like the honor bestowed on someone else, the good Samaritan agrees to be part of the ceremonies of her mother, brother, and best friend. With that singular (or is that tripular) honor comes arranging the various weddings, with each individual expecting her to do some near impossible feat for their wedding. Worse yet for Meg is that Michael, whom she likes, is rumored to be gay.

However, the nuptials take a back seat when one of the guests is found dead, an apparent murder victim. Meg's retired dad figures he needs to uncover the killer and starts sleuthing. Soon, accidents follow every step he takes. As others are murdered, Meg begins her own investigation before her father becomes the next victim.

MURDER WITH PEACOCKS is a very humorous satirical cozy that will leave readers feeling pleased from the amusing tale. Though the identity of the murderer is obvious early on (except to the Langslow family and the local enforcement officials), the story line remains fun to read because of the zany portrayal of the characters. Readers will quickly understand why Donna Andrews' debut novel won the 1998 St. Martin's Malice Domestic Award even as they will want more jocularity starring Meg, Michael and their kin.

Harriet Klausner