An excellent book for Grduate level MBA and Finance students. Very precise and covers all details in a very simple and effective way. I recommend every single MBA student should keep this book as a reference.

As a French student and now as an MBA graduate student from an American University, I had the opportunity to read several books from both the US and from Europe. This one is simply excellent!

You can find other great books like those written by Myers, Ross and so on. They all give a good overview of corporate finance issues. But something is missing in all these books: a more friendly and a less institutional approach. You can find that in the book written by Balbirer and Shapiro.

In my opinion, you can use this book in two ways. Either you are looking for a particular issue. Then you will see how this book is well organized and how the content is strong, concise and interesting. Or you can do like I did. Read this book for pleasure and enjoy how the authors reformulate the same point, the same ideas in three or four different ways in the same paragraph to make sure that you can understand. And that is the main strenght of this book. Whatever topic you pick up in ordinaries (even excellent) Finance books, you might have to read a paragraph two or three times to really get it. In this one, just enjoy how the authors try to take different perspectives to explain things...only one reading is required to understand!

I think this book is more appropriate for undergraduate students even if it is a great introductory book for MBA students or people without any financial background. It covers a lot of different topics so you can consider that as a first (strong) or a secondary Corporate Finance book. However, I don't think that it would be appropriate for very advanced Finance major students. The latter could however consider it as their new reference books where they can come to pick up some information they might have forgotten in previous classes.

My advice...just by it or you will miss something.

This was my first exposure to a Sidney Sheldon book. While I bought it for 'light reading' for a flight I was taking, I had also read some reviews calling Sheldon a "master", etc. etc. I suppose I expected more than this plain, going-nowhere story.

This can be called one of the best books of the Great Author Sidney Sheldon. This book has all the aspects which Sidney Sheldon is famous For. Its got a great background, wonderful story line and a fantastic conclusion. It has all aspects a book should have like struggle, power, romance and sex. You would regret if you missed this.

I don't read books very much but I have one favorite writer.His name is Sidney Sheldon.I like his world. His book develops story very quickly so I'm always surprised the development and enjoy how it develops.All of his books are interesting very much and this time, I recommend one of them tytled "A Stranger in the Mirror".This story is written about inside HollyWood. We are all longing to stand the wonderful stage of HoolyWood among the beautiful lights and many audiences. But, it is a steep way to realize our dream. This story tells us that how mean and ruthless inside the beautiful HollyWood through the life of a young comedian and a young actress who dreamed to succeed in HollyWood. At first, they were full of hope but then they realized what a ruthless way we had to go to stand the HollyWood stage. To the goal, they did anything, sometime they betray their friends and lovers, sometime the use their sex. But the things they got in consequence of those ruthless behavior is neither eternal success nor happy life but only destruction of themselves. Through this story, we can get how man is stupid. Anyway, please read once.

This is a kind of fairy tale with a rhyme. It was on Fred Penner's song album and then became a book. It is very sweet and I think it is especially interesting for young girls who like ponies and merry go rounds and of course, don't like witches who put spells on ponies

If you are already a fan of Second City -- or of comedy in general -- this is a very entertaining and informative book, containing many nuggets that elucidate the overwhelming impact Second City has had on comedy in the US. But if you know nothing about them, it is not the greatest introduction. It doesn't give a real sense of the improv process. It is accompanied by two CDs of performances. The CD of the early years has pretty bad sound, and some of the performances are dated. THe second CD is great.

This is an extraordinary chronicle of the most important theater movement in a hundred years. Following "The Compass" by Janet Coleman and "Something Wonderful Right Away" by Jeffrey Sweet, this is required reading. Sheldon Patinkin has captured the story of the people and the times of The Second City in a fashion that will engage those who have not been part of the Improv movement and will give a wonderfully informed perspective the initiated. For the CDs alone, the book is worth it. For the photographs alone, the book is worth it. For the spotlights on personalities it is worth it. The narrative is crisp, and clear, and personal. As I read I felt I was listening to the story told in a kitchen with a beer in my hand. The only thing that he leaves out is mention of the story beyond The Second City of the hundreds of Improv clubs and playing teams and the thousands of players, and now millions of audience members who have never been to a Second City show yet who have been inspired by this great history.

It is important to understand what this package (ie book and two audio CDs) is not. It is not a definitive history of the group, nor does it provide detailed biographical information about the group's most prominent members, nor is it a probling analysis of the broader and deeper context in which the group was established and then evolved. Yes, the reader is "taken backstage at the world's greatest comedy theater" but the experience (albeit enjoyable) very much resembles what a family member or friend would probably encounter when literally allowed backstage. After having read the book, I understood more about the group's development and the interaction (onstage) between and among the principals.

Perhaps you have seen the Olivier film based on Henry V in which, during the first 12-15 minutes, the viewer is transported back to the Elizabethan Age, to the London theatre world, and to the stage on which Shakespeare's play was performed. Brief scenes backstage are included. When reading this book, I had the same sense of being allowed limited access. Only when the two audio CDs are heard are the unique talents of the various performers brought to life. I view the book as being supplementary to the CDs. Together, they provide exceptional entertainment to those who enjoy comedic improvisation.

The text is very wordy and problems could be answered in the book or in a solutions manual. Very few illustrations are a problem. Our Prof. had to explain several mistakes in the text that were completely incorrect.

This textbook, although presenting a basic approach to the fundamentals of Precalculus, provides a cluttered collection of confusing explanations and poorly edited questions. The cover proves to be the best designed part of the bookl; inside there is little illustration and lots of wordy text. The book contains no full set of answers which could often leave a teacher stranded in some of its poorly phrased, misguided questions. Overall, a poorly conceived, designed, edited, and published textbook.

I read the preceding reviews and don't find what was said untrue. The simplicity and algorithmically solved problems, however, belie the sophisticated look at functions. My students found the work with difference equations difficult because of the symbolic manipulation, but their teacher (me), appreciated how the text took the idea of derivatives, reduced this concept into a discrete function, and concluded with the antiderivative. Very clever.