A well written (almost conversational) review of Financial Analysis. Audience is Commercial Credit Analysts or CFO's of mid size entities , and perhaps a summary review for Equity Analysts (Valuation discussion was bare however and quite dated).

Covers basic ratio analysis, all the way through Capital Budgeting, and analysis of suitable equity / debt mix.

Although lacking in more sophisticated methods and any discussion of newer topics such as derivatives, and International trade issues (FX Translation), this book is perfect for the Regional Bank staffer or mid size Corp CFO.

This book was filled with easy-to-make gifts from the garden. The author walks you step by step through the process and shares lessons learned to make the gift fool proof. There are ideas for pressed flower pictures, natural dyed linen, clever Christmas ornaments and violet flower jelly. This book is a favorite of mine since the ideas are new and unusual. I recommend this book.

I'm not a student of this subject, but I have taken college courses in chemistry and one in biology. I think this book is an excellent introduction to the human body and it's functions, which is an incredibly fascinating subject. The authors provide an appropriate level of detail for an general, introductory texts. The narrative is supported by wonderful 3-D visuals as well as tables summarzing essential information.

Whether you're a guitarist, Taylor fan, jazz musician or just like to read good biographies, this book will keep you captivated. Taylor and Mead give you a depiction of what a life can become when you follow your heart and let life, with all it's foibles, be your teacher.

Not only is Taylor an extremely gifted musician but I would say he's a bit of a gypsy, as well. The list of people he has played with is literally a "WHo's WHo?" of All-Time Jazz Greats, some well know and some obscure.

The book is not only an easy read but it's also filled with interesting tidbits and funny anecdotes.

David Shackleton, in the opinion of Professor Martin, is one of the great un-sung heroes of the early Labour movement in Britain.In his book, Ross Martin attempts to redress the balance somewhat by re-constructing the life and work of this remarkable gentleman through some very determined research, made difficult at times, as Shackleton seemed wholly uninterested in preserving his image for posterity. As an illustration of the extent to which history has tended to overlook Shackleton, the author notes in his introduction that when in 1956 the Manchester Guardian published a photograph of the leaders of the Labour Party, 1906, the paper could only come up with the names of three of the four men in the foreground (Ramsay McDonald, Kier Hardie and Arthur Henderson). Shackleton was the fourth. On reading the book, one is treated to a review of a remarkable life. From cotton loom operative through to Knight Commander of the Bath, and the Permanent Secretary of the first Ministry of Labour in Britain. On the way, he effectively led the parliamentary Labour Party in the time of Kier Hardie's often nominal leadership - was chairman of the TUC, and took active part in the workings of Lloyd-George's war cabinet. The book is divided into two main sections. The first half is as detailed an account of Shackleton's career as Martin has been able to re-construct. It can be difficult work getting through this section. Professor Martin utilises so many sources (the bibliography bears testimony to a remarkable amount of research under difficult conditions) that keeping track of the main text can be a challenge at times. The second half of the book attempts to build up a profile of Shackleton as a person - often anecdotal, but describes with barely disguised admiration the profile of a man worthy of great respect - and in Ross Martin's opinion, worthy of far more recognition amongst Labour historians than has hitherto been the case. The Lancashire Giant is certainly a book which should be referred to if one wishes to broaden one's perspective of the early Labour movement in Britain. Most other leading figures from that time have been researched in depth, but the Lancashire Giant not only goes some way to putting Shackleton in his proper place in Labour history, but it also sheds light on many other early goings-on in the Labour movement, which less objective biographers may have overlooked. I myself have been aware of Shackleton since my earliest days (he was my Great Grandfather), though never aware of the real nature of the pioneering role which he played in improving the conditions of the working men and women of Britain, until I saw this book. It should be read by anyone with an interest in the history of Labour in Britain.

The explanations and diagrams are helpful and first rate; no other catechism is as in depth with the explanations or has as many diagrams to illustrate theological points. Only the Lutheran Church of Australia's Small Catechism even comes close, with very distant second when it comes to useful diagrams. This Small Catechism with explanation is right up there in overall quality with the LCMS's and the ELS' (Evangelical Lutheran Synod) Small Catechism.

Some of the explanations, however, decidedly support Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) positions. For example, any prayer, even grace before a meal, is taught as an "act of worship" and, thus, one should not pray with others with whom he is not in fellowship. This of course is one of the more "extreme" WELS positions being espoused. But then again, this is a WELS catechism! So a reader should be aware of the doctrinal positions being taught when using this catechism.

Only two negatives, however, mar this fine production. First, this Catechism uses the NIV translation exclusively as its Bible text. The LCMS's catechism uses the NIV, but favors the NKJV where the NIV strayed from the original text. The ELS catechism uses the NKJV exclusively. Second, the translation of Luther's Small Catechism is a bit breezy and slightly paraphrastic. For this reason I must give this valiant effort 4 stars instead of 5.

First, a small correction. This collection of mathematical essays was assembled as a tribute to Martin Gardner, on the occasion (20 years ago!) of his retirement. This book was not edited by Gardner, but it is in the same spirit (and the same size) as his "Mathematical Games" books of his Scientific American columns, so it does make a nice companion volume.

There are lots of good things in this book, but the best is Doris Schattschneider's essay "In Praise of Amateurs," on the ways of tiling the plane with convex pentagons. Does this sound like an incredibly arcane, useless subject? Well, I suppose it is, but it's also a delicious story, and this volume is the only place where I have seen it told in full. There are 13 essentially different ways to tile the plane with convex pentagons. Many of these beautiful patterns were discovered by Marjorie Rice, a San Diego housewife with only a high school education. Furthermore, she discovered these designs years after it was "proved" that there were only eight ways. If you thought the aperiodic Penrose tiling of the plane was a fascinating discovery, you will want to read this essay, admire these 13 patterns, and ideally find a fourteenth.

This essay alone is worth the price of the book. While the rest of the book is not quite up to its standard, it too is quite worthwhile. There are essays by Scott Kim, Donald E. Knuth, H.S.M. Coxeter, Solomon W. Golomb, and many others, all clearly illustrated. The section on 3-dimensional tiling is also quite cool.

There are times when working closely together in one crisis arena builds bonds that provide an essential glue for sticking closely together in another. In this case, the crisis is the growing gap in revolutionary military capabilities between the United States and its NATO allies as described in 1999 by David Gompert, Richard Kugler and Martin Libicki. And, I argue, had the prescriptions for addressing this challenge been followed at the time, there would have been less political separation between the U.S. and its allies in the UN Security Council in the run-up to Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The authors write with the authority of top-level national security leaders and analysts. At the time, Gompert was a VP at the distinguished RAND Corporation, and Libicki worked there as a senior policy analyst after a previous posting at National Defense University. Kugler is a research professor with the Institute for National Strategic Studies at NDU.

"Mind the Gap" argues that the "United States is moving not only at a different velocity but also in a different direction, with different priorities, based on a different philosophy than its allies in modernizing its forces to exploit new technology." The authors assess this situation (Chapter 1), and put forth a "four-tier" solution to the problem (Chapters 2-5). Chapter 6 concludes with prescriptions for the roles of national governments, military services, NATO, principles of collaboration and establishing practical ways to do this.

The "first tier" gives a broad view of international security interests to which the United States and most European countries ought to be able to subscribe. The "second tier" expresses how the NATO allies should work toward an agreed view of the most critical operational military challenges and requirements. To the extent that political authorities can forge a shared strategic outlook, the "ability of militaries to play their role will be enhanced."

The "third tier" gets into detail that explains how effective coalition building can be facilitated by development of a combined military technological infrastructure -- one based on C4ISR (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. The "fourth tier" discussion centers on how to accomplish the practical matter of pursuing a common goal in revolution in military affairs capabilities on both sides of the Atlantic. This, the authors argue can be facilitated by open market competition in information technology.

Despite the successes of U.S.-led coalitions and alliances in wars since "Mind the Gap" was written (Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq), the problem described between its pages persists. Now, with the U.S. Defense Department embarked on a major effort to further transform capabilities, the gap will continue to widen.

In the short term, this may not impose very severe penalties, at least as far as battlefield successes are concerned. But we have already seen a widening of the political gap between some NATO allies and the United States. Should both gaps be allowed to continue to expand, we are left with the possibility of considering the U.S. role as not only the world's chief of police, but as the world's policeman as well.

Coalitions are a critical element to military successes, and an equally critical dimension of political achievement. This book shows one way to address the former challenge, and by extension, helps to show a way shore up the latter.

If, like me, you're considering upgrading from a small peer-to-peer Windows 95/98 network to a proper NT server network and are wondering what NT is all about, this is a great introduction. Better than most introductory books, it clearly explains the advantages and limitations of moving up to NT and the basics of how file server and client/server operations work. However, if you're looking for up-to-the-minute NT information, you'd be better to look elsewhere. Despite the "totally revised and updated" claims, this book is clearly near the end of it's currency. The references to 9600 speed modems and PC's with 16 MB RAM let you know the revisions were not all that complete. But if you're mystified by what NT can do and want an introduction, this book will prepare you for more current/technical books.