This book is a great way to introduce ones self to the area of thermodynamics as applied to chemistry. The text is very informal, yet covers everything one would expect to see in an undergraduate physical chemistry or thermodynamics corse. The layout of the book is simple starting with simple physical analogs of the systems to be examined and from there developing the more complicated relationships between thermodynamic quantities. This book is excellent for those who wish to have a good basis going into further studies in the field or else wish to have a reference of the material.

The book is about the field of Knowledge Engineering. The book talks about what knowledge is, what is the role of a knowledge engineer, what the knowledge engineering methodologies are and how you go about maintaining and building your own knowledge based system. The book is a light read and you are not overloaded with computer jargon. The book does not on the hand, go into to much depth, but from the title of the book, it's not meant too. It's only a 'introduction'.

Traditionally located after functions and before calculus, trigonometry combines elementary proofs with everyday applications. Smith follows this mold, but breaks step in a very positive manner. The conventional wisdom has been to consider the trigonometric functions to be the ratios of the sides of a right triangle first, and then generalize. In this case the general functions are followed by the special cases, and it works.
The functions are defined as coordinates on the unit circle and then it is on to the consequences of the definitions. Several obvious identities are immediately presented with proofs, reinforcing the functional approach to trigonometry, as well as introducing the concept of proof. After graphing and additional proofs of identities, the inverse functions are defined. Only then does right angle trigonometry make an appearance. The book closes with complex numbers, polar curves, and conic sections, with much of it being labeled as optional.
As is the case with books of this type, the majority of the problems are standard issue. However, some of them show a great deal of creativity. For example, if you wish to understand the path of Luke Skywalker's fighter as it attacks the Death Star, turn to page 207. And if you need to know how far Mr. T. must throw his grappling hook to catch the top of the building so that he can climb up and stomp the bad guys, turn to page 208. Such problems add spice to the text that will delight all readers with a touch of youth in their hearts.
All chapters end with a list of chapter objectives, key terms, summary problems, and an application for further study. There is an occasional historical note about certain topics and solutions to all odd problems appear at the back of the book. A calculator is required to do the majority of computational style problems.
There are some areas that are poorly done. The inverse trigonometric functions are poorly presented as the restricted graphs of the functions appear after the definitions. It would have been much clearer if the presentation had been more simultaneous. In the preface a technique called framing is introduced, being described as innovative and unique. Actually, it is nothing that the typical teacher of this material will fail to recognize. The taking of one cycle of the function and repeating it after suitable alterations is a standard way of presenting the periodic nature of trigonometry .
However, these weaknesses are in no way fatal, and this book is an excellent option for anyone looking for a textbook of trigonometry with the right mix of functions, proofs, and applications to everyday situations.
There is additional material for this book:

. An answer book for all problems;
. EXPTEST Question bank for IBM compatible computers;
. Instructor's manual;
. Solutions and study guide;
. Trigpak, a computerized tutorial for IBM compatible computers.

Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission.

It's hard to say exactly what I think about this book. It was good, but not great; parts were very interesting to read, while some were more difficult. I am not normally drawn to the dreamlike writing style that Ali Smith displays here -- I just don't like to think that much when I read. However, I found that Hotel World was easier to understand than most of these stream-of-consciousness novels.

Instead of being a cut-and-dried story, Ali Smith has chosen to break up her novel into five separate vignettes. The main point of the novel, I believe, is Sara Wilby, a chambermaid at Global Hotel, who fell to her death in a dumbwaiter on her second night on the job. Sara's spirit haunts the hotel, her family, and tortures her own corpse in an effort to find out the details of her death.

Following this story (which was excellent and the reason why I continued on), readers are introduced four other women: Else, a homeless woman who camps out in front of the hotel; Penny, a journalist on a business trip who finds herself bored and goes in search of something different; Lise, the hotel's receptionist who recalls the events that take place in the hotel after Sara's death; and Clare, Sara's sister, whose meandering thoughts depict her grief over the loss of Sara, and her determination to carry on.

I found this novel to be a difficult read because of the writing style. However, I'm not sure if a linear approach would have made this story come out right. The dreamlike quality put on an atmospheric, ghostly spin, and I believe the book is better for it. Hotel World was definitely worth my time, although I questioned myself many times throughout my reading. But now that I am done and have had time to reflect on it, I realize that I did enjoy this book, and for other readers who can persevere, I believe they will find it worth it, too.

Ali Smith's "Hotel World" is hardly a novel. More like five vignettes held together by the most tenuous of links - a common locale, the Global Hotel, where the stories take place, a perfect excuse for the use of five disembodied voices as narrators. There's the ghost of young national swimmer Sara Wilby, the chambermaid who paid for the fun of a prank with her life, her grieving sister Claire, regular bag lady Else from across the road who gets to be a non-paying guest for the night courtesy of the kindhearted receptionist Lise, and Penny, the glamourous visiting journalist. Smith's writing style is consciously experimental, almost deliberately inventive and varied, so it shouldn't surprise that some of her stories work better than others. Sort of a hit or miss.

The opening chapter, Sara's ghostly confessional, is an absolute delight. Full of playful regret and poignance, it expresses articulately poor Sara's shock at being consigned in a few seconds to the other side of existence. So much so that she keeps going over and reminiscing on every little detail of living. Lise's story is also strangely moving because we can all relate to it. Her ambivalent act of kindness is every minion's secret dream. Of cocking a snook at management as a therapeutic release from one's sense of powerlessness. Claire's stream-of-consciousness rambling is rich in content but frustratingly difficult to access. Unless you've had plenty of practice with Virginia Woolf novels. Penny's adventure on the corridors outside her room is surrealistic and reads like a spooky episode from "Twin Peaks". But it isn't quite up to the mark. Else's story is unexceptional and the closing chapter with references to the spirit of national icons like Princess Diana and the late 60s pop diva Dusty Springfield just seems like a lame attempt by Smith to gain a more general validity for her novel. Stylistically, what gives "Hotel World" a coherence is Smith's use of repeat themes and objects throughout her stories. Like that of "falling" (Sara's flight down the chute.....and the strange girl outside Penny's corridor peering into the void behind the wall) and the "watches" and "time" motif , etc.

Ali Smith's "Hotel World" is an interesting experiment and typical of the works of young contemporary writers from England. She is a name to watch but it's early days yet. "Hotel World" is ultimately more hype than substance...and by far the weakest and the most lightweight of the Booker Prize nominees of 2001. Smith has to pay her dues to land the big one !

"Hotel World" can best be described as a book that 'haunts' you, from the first page, from the first paragraph, from the first word (which, amusingly, is 'wooooo-hoooo!'). Once picked up, it won't let you go until every word and idea is consumed, until the plot is exhausted.

That, in my opinion, always makes a good read.

"Hotel World" revolves around the tragic and untimely fate of a teenage swimmer, Sara, who plummets to her death in a dumb waiter. The first 'chapter' (if it can be called that; it's more of a vignette) begins with Sara's 'ghost', mislaid from her body, wandering the earth she has left and trying to make sense of it. The 'ghost' visits Sara's body in its coffin and begs it to give her insight into what happened on May 24th, the day she died. Sara's body explains that she had just fallen in love, suprisingly with a female employee of a watch shop, and that her fall in the dumb waiter had been a tragic accident: a £5 bet that went horribly wrong.

If any of this sounds silly or hackneyed, it is the fault of my description only because Smith's writing is incredibly imaginative, insightful and unique. The melancholy theme of Sara's death is never over-played, and is conducted in a highly creative and contemporary manner. The strongest vignette in the book is that 'written' by Sara's younger sister, Clare. Although written in a somewhat baffling stream-of-consciousness style without punctuation, Clare's chapter is the most wonderfully evoking and emotional (without being too sentimental) account of grief I have ever read. Picking up tiny diamond-details with a fine-tooth comb, Ali Smith has an impossible eye for the subtle wonders of humanity: Clare, going to put onion peel in the rubbish bin, finds her sisters's swimming trophies in amongst the trash; she picks them out and tells her father that the rose bowl trophy has to be passed on to whoever wins the prize next year. Clare, remembering that dust is partial dead skin particles, keeps 'some of her sister' in a handkerchief in her top drawer, saving her sister from the hoover.

The main body of the story is generated when Clare, dressed in Sara's spare uniform, goes to the Global Hotel and searches for the now hidden dumb waiter shaft, obsessed with finding out how many seconds it took the steel box to fall. She then unwittingly involves a cast of strangers who also play their part in the seamless beauty of "Hotel World": Penny, a bored and disenchanted journalist and Else, a homeless woman who is given a free room by the hotel receptionist, Lise, who is sick and tired and wants to rebel about the corporate chain, Global Hotels. They are all linked in some way, as Smith stitches an engaging and colourful patchwork of death, hope and the endurance of love.

I read Smith's novel in around 4 or 5 hours; it was impossible to stop or delay finishing it because the characters, and the world they weaved, just captivated me. "Hotel World" leaves you feeling full and empty at the same time, enriched, confused, happy, futile, and -- if you're a writer -- jealous and frustrated. Her talents are enviable. The descriptions, visions and observations she uses in her book are profound, but never ficticious or pretentious. I must admit that I cringed slightly at the idea of a well-paid style writer and a homeless woman who collect pennies and wraps newspaper around her boots joining together to help a young girl, and by any other writer the story would seem false and preachy, but in Smith's hands it is true, tentative and remarkable.

It is clear why this book was nominated for the Booker Prize and the Orange Fiction Prize, the calibre of writing is fantastic- although I wouldn't actively recommend it to anyone who finds anything other than the classic beginning-middle-end novel structure challenging, as it's fragmented style maybe be a bit too brave for the tastes of some.

This is one of the better Calculus books I have come across. The worst part of this book is how many wrong answers are in the back. The second bad part is sometimes they forget that for most of us this is a hard subject and you almost can't over explain something. As the chapters progress if you have forgotten something they won't go over it again and in the examples won't show it. It is up to you to understand what they did. As a calculus book for Bus majors this one isn't bad. You will not learn Caclulus from this book by itself.

Tourist Trap is not Julie Smith's best book but it still ain't bad. Her heroine is a bit too dithery for my taste and the plot is not as tight as it should be. Read New Orleans Mourning or True Life Adventure-they are both great books.

I was forced to use this book as a text for a one quarter course in Finite Mathematics; it is a complete disaster:

* Many typos, even in worked examples. The summary of the Simplex algorithm pivoting rules contains two fat errors. (This is the third edition!)

* Students are utterly confused by many of the explanations given, and I can't blame them.

* Many problems lead to very bad fractions, which distracts from the main procedures

* The Student's Solution Manual simply repeats the solutions for the odd-numbered problems in the back of the book; solutions are not explained.

* Treatment of Mathematics of Finance is a lot more complicated than necessary.

* When introducing sets, the universe U is used before it is explained.

Conclusion: if you are thinking about adopting this text, think again. If you are thinking about taking a class that uses this books as text, think again.

I used this book as a student and liked it. I noticed a few typos also but they weren't a big deal. I especially enjoyed the section on Markov Chains and Decision Theory.

Try it out if you can find it used.

Presents an unconvincing case about the origins of caste. Smith seems to have been swamped by information so that he missed the woods for the trees.