I personally liked this book. It really lets children interact with the storyline, which is to get Dora safely to the library so she can return her books. Dora asks the reader for help in finding articles in her backpack that will help her accomplish this goal.

Overall, this book was a little too advanced for my soon-to-be three year-old cousin. Be sure to buy this book for a child who's older, because it's not a hardcover book (a little one will rip this easily) and it might be a little difficult for a toddler to interact with the story.

My 2 year old is a big Dora fan and this book is requested at bedtime every night. It is very interactive (there are lots of questions in it like "where is boots?" or "Can you count the books?" ) It is a good inexpensive book for any Dora fan.

This is an amazingly haunting book that is beautifully crafted. I have loaned it out several times, and the comment that I get back is always the same. "It's a great book". It's the kind of book that makes a home for its self in your mind, where the characters flourish with a life of their own.

"It was very fun to figure out. First it was easy, and then the mysteries got harder to solve. I recommend it very highly" (This is what my 11 year old granddaughter , Isabel, said about this book.

Readable account of the Orange County financial blow-up. Particularly interesting is the description of Robert Citron, the hapless college dropout who controlled billions of dollars of public money. Also fascinating are the prescient comments of the obscure accountant who ran against unbeatable Citron in the election prior to the disaster. Jorion manages to educate the reader, in a very painless way, about the institutions of the bond market (such as repos).

On the minus side, the book is not particularly well documented (in terms of, for example, the graphs and the sources of the data) and some chapters seem suspiciously like lecture notes, hastily adapted to a book format. Still, an enjoyable trip to the dark side of financial market.

This book tells the story of a 1.4 billion$ financial loss by the Orange County municipality.
The author explains very clearly what happened.
The municipality, through its treasurer, speculated that interest rates would stay the same or fall. Into the bargain, he leveraged his position with a factor 3. The means for the speculation were repos on bonds.

When the interest rates went through the roof (from 5,25% to 8% = + 52%), the value of the collateral (the bonds) for his position fell (with a factor 3). He got a margin call, but couldn't pay it. The biggest part of the investment (held by FBCS) was liquidated with a phenomenal loss. Only Merrill Lynch didn't cover their position.

The author gives excellent explanations on some very specialized investments like reverse floaters and other high tech financial operations of which the value can only calculated by partial integrals.

Food for investment bankers.

Jorion should be commended for his insightful, first-class treatment of this history making event. Big Bets... is a fast, fluid read that is devoid of technical terms and is written in an active, conversational and explanatory voice that the typical layman can readily understand. In this book, which reads more like gripping fiction, we are treated to an excellent character sketch of the key culprit in the Orange county financial fiasco, Robert L. Citron, his rise to power, the environment he worked in, the exotic financial tools he carelessly wielded, an unforgettable cast of financial hucksters and ill-advised power wielding greedy misfits, and the ultimate downfall of the Orange county financial safety net and its after-effects.

From this book, we learn that Robert L. Citron was head of a large portfolio, had no oversight, and an inflated ego. His superiors and fellow investment participants (such as the county school district) knew full well what he was doing, but allowed him to continue unsupervised because of his past stellar performance- much of which was due to pure luck and favorable market conditions. We also learn that Citron, much like Nicholas Leeson, the orchestrator of the fall of Barings, was a financial neophyte. While on the one hand believing that he was fully invested in bonds, Citron had taken a heavily leveraged position in very exotic derivative securities, proving to Jorion's point that he really did not have a clue as to what he was doing.

We also learn that Citron (nor the people above him and his investment participants), who had no real background in finance, did not know the difference between market price and face value, nor did he know the difference between an option on an asset and the outright ownership of an asset. Based on one very bad bet on the movement of interest rates, Citron fully invested Orange County's finances in derivative securities that he did not understand at all, and compounded the problem by leveraging his position (basically using a little money to borrow a lot of money) to the extreme.

After reading this book, those of us who believe that our investments, from the retirement funds managed for us by fund advisors and our places of work to our bank accounts and our kids' education funds, are safe should have our heads examined. People such as Citron were not financial gurus, that is certain, but as the more recent derivative led failures at hedge fund Long Term Capital Management (which included the two Nobel laureates who literally wrote the book on derivative pricing on its stellar team of rocket scientists) and Bank of America demonstrate, no one is truly safe.

This book contains some really wild facts about weather & weird & odd natural causes. Its a great book aside from the exclamation points at the end of sentences stating that thousands of people died.

This book is split into sections of:
-Weird Weather
-Castastrophies Big & Little
-The Violent Earth

Along with paragraphs explaining each odd event, (almost) every page has a "Laugh Line" or "Didja Know." I encourage you to get this book, filled with fun facts.

I became fascinated with this book when my friend and I had an ongoing bet about whether or not it could really rain frogs, like it did in the popular movie "Magnolia". This book helped me win the bet, and also helped me brush up on really interesting weather facts. Great knowledge for a great price!

This is a great book about natural disasters. The facts in it are weird and captivate my imagination. All books I have read in this series are intriguing. Once I start reading them I can't put them down.

You'll finish this novel smiling, but for most people (those not extremely interested with mountaineering) it would probably be better to spend that cash on something else and check this out from the library. This is one of my personal favorites, however, and i strongly recomend reading it.

In Caverns of Blue Ice, written by Robert Roper, is about a young girl Louise DeMaistre. The story takes place in Montier, a small town in southeastern France, about three decades ago. Louise's father, Jules DeMaistre, is a famous Alpine climber and mountaineer. Unlike her two brothers, Louise is not interested in following in her father's footsteps. She believes, along with her sister Elise and many other people at that time, that mountain climbing is only for men. Only after leading her brother off a mountain and to safety does she realize her talent. From that day on, Louise started to enjoy climbing and to appreciate the mountains. The novel continues to describe her accomplishments, her tough job as an apprentice to a very strict guide, the road to becoming the first women Alpine guide, and her rise to fame. She struggles but continues to prove that she can be as strong as any man on the mountains. When a young Canadian climber enters Louise's life however, the scene becomes much more complicated for her. Louise had never dealt with love before and she is forced to face new challenges. Years later when Louise has to look death in the face trapped in a blue ice crevasse with her true love, she regains her confidence as a woman climber and establishes a sense of security within her heart and mind. I was not only taken aback by the breath taking descriptions of the mountains, but also by Louise's courage to succeed and to prove herself to those people who doubted her. I felt sympathetic for Louise when her true love left and excited when she ascended her most difficult climbing route. This novel is not only suspenseful and romantic, but also leads you on an exciting and informational adventure through the French Alps and the blue ice caves of the Himalayas. When the story unfolds, Louise DeMaistre is a twelve-year-old girl who is quite chubby for her age. She is not very active and she hates the mountains. When her brother convinces her to take a short climb with him, she realizes something about herself that she had not known before. Louise eventually grows into her body, and she becomes a beautiful young woman with an amazing talent in mountain climbing. She struggles to find her identity and to prove to many people that she could succeed in a man dominated sport. However, when a young man enters the picture, Louise is left emotionally unbalanced. Never before had she experienced true love, and she is left lost in confusion and pain. Throughout the middle of the novel, Louise is faced with harsh physical and emotional challenges that leave her skeptical about continuing her career as a climber. At the end of the novel however, Louise finds peace within her heart, soul, and mind. She becomes much more mature and self-reliant and gains much more confidence in herself. As one could conclude, Louise DeMaistre changed in many ways throughout the novel, In Caverns of Blue Ice.

The writter forgot that this was a book about a mountaineer. This could have been an exciting, inspiring book about a great climber and instead its a book about someone's ramblings since other more interesting books were apparently already written

Roper's mixture of first-rate journalism and top-notch story telling make this thrilling and tragic biography of mountaineer Willi Unsoeld unfold with page-turning immediacy. The use of the present tense and the beauty of the descriptive writing make the reader feel as though he is on each expedition. As one life-and-death scenario after another unfolds, the story never becomes sensationalized, and the medical and technical information is always handled clearly. This is a fascinating look at a subculture rife with egos, infighting and betrayals, in which Unsoeld emerges as a true hero for our time. As Roper explores what, exactly, mountaineers are after and what, if anything, they owe the rest of us, Unsoeld's life ultimately serves as a microcosm for the history of mountaineering, and for man's place on the planet. But this isn't just a guy's guy book; it also explores and celebrates the role of women mountaineers, such as Unsoeld's beautiful and spirited daughter, Devi, who's remarkable relationship with her father and heartbreaking demise make this an unforgettable read.

Robert Roper has written a gripping account of one of mountain climbing's most charismastic figures, Willi Unsoeld. "Fatal Mountaineer" will appeal both to mountaineering and adventure enthusiasts and to any serious reader looking for a wrenching drama set in an exquisite landscape.

Framed by the story of Unsoeld's eventual demise in an avalanche on Mt Rainier, the centerpiece of the book is the detailed narrative of a fateful ascent of Nanda Devi, India's tallest mountain, by a group of elite climbers. Roper carefully dissects the tensions that emerge from Day One of the expediton between the hard-charging, summit-oriented alpha males of the pack and those sympathetic to the transcendental, growth-oriented perspective of Unsoeld. Included among this latter contingent is Devi Unsoeld, who was named after this mythopoetic mountain, and tragically becomes, or merges with, its resident goddess.

Roper's writing is crisp and nuanced, and he is able to bring an immediacy to events he has reconstructed from multiple and often contradictory or sanitized versions of events. Within the first chapters, I felt as though I were in the tent debating whether an ill member of the team, and thus potentially the weakest link (it does not help that this particular climber is also a woman)should make the trek or head back to base camp.

Roper tells not only the outward bound story of a mountain-climbing expedition but also draws us within the psyches of the characters, explicating the motives behind this most enigmatic of human undertakings.

I would urge readers to go out any buy this book before the Spring thaw.

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