This book applies Darwin's theory of evolution to medicine and that's very exciting. It's exciting because the theory of evolution turns out to be a framework with impressive explanatory power in the area of health and disease. Why do babies in modern Western societies show more excessive crying than infants of !Kung San hunter-gatherers? What makes many women that give birth in modern high-tech hospitals still unsatisfied with the process? Why do so many modern women get breast cancer? Evolutionary medicine proposes answers, sometimes controversial, but definitely almost always worth considering. Why only four stars then? Perhaps it's because the field is still maturing but I thought only six of the eighteen chapters of the book showed clear arguments, high-quality writing, and didn't require a Ph.D. in biochemistry to follow the details. (I liked the chapters about evolutionary perspectives on infant crying, sudden infant death syndrome, obstetrics, nutrition, psychiatry, and breast cancer). And finally, readers should keep in mind that "Evolutionary Medicine" is a university textbook. For a more accessible introduction into this exciting new field they should read Nesse and Williams' "Why We Get Sick".

This is a great book for any new teacher who needs to learn about the special education realm. It has great info. on the various laws and various techniquest to assist the special needs student.

Reading this book I got the feeling that Mr. Smith couldn't quite decide if his audience was the layman or the surveying professional. For example, very little mathematics is used (even though there are topics in the book which would have been better served by a more mathematical treatment), while on the other hand many terms are used as though the reader should be familiar with them already.

I found the lack of a glossary frustrating, as was Mr. Smith's habit of using concepts chapters ahead of their defintion. The difficult subject matter was further obscured by numerous errors in the figures and text (such as refering to velocity as the second integral of acceleration.)

In the end, the book did give me a good qualitative feel for the issues germane to geodesy, but I had to work very hard to extract that information and found myself immediately looking for a more perspicuous text.

I bought this book to fill in knowledge gaps, not to learn geodesy as an expert. It answered lots of questions I had had about measurements, how surveys are performed, geodetic systems (datums and so on), the WGS, and the use of gravity. The details are all there, within about 100 pages in the middle of the book. Not bad at all.

This subject by its nature requires a mathematical treatment, so although the book does not go deeply into the math, it's sometimes heavy reading. Many of the illustrations deserve careful study, too. It's not light bedtime reading. I carried this book around for several days during and after a large GIS conference and periodically dipped into it. It works well in small doses.

I found Mr. Smith's book to be very informative and well written. He covers many aspects of geodesy from early history to modern application. He is apparently very knowledgable and has a broad spectrum of experiences which he writes about. There are some instances when Mr. Smith tells a large amount of information, maybe more than the average reader would require. There are other times that I wished he would tell me more. He has a writing style that tends to skip around alot. Just hang in there and you will get the information in another chapter. There is always the bibliography for reference, if, Mr. Smith didn't cover it, which is rare indeed. He covers such obscure subjects such as: coriolis effect, isostasy and dynamic heights. Throughout the book all of the illustrations are simple yet understandable in almost all cases.

I was expecting a memory jogger, but this was a fast paced marathon! Instead of being a few, quick, easy to read points, the pocket guide read more like a book. The formating was difficult to follow and the font was difficult to see.

Here are my thoughts on this book.

Pros: 1. Very reasonably priced as a comprehensive review book and supposedly a money back guarantee.
2. It is current and up to date (as of the April 2003 exam)
3. It has a pretty good variety and quantity of examples and practice problems.

Cons: 1. There are a large number of errors in the example and practice problems. I found at least 50 errors in using this book as a review guide and it is difficult, especially on some of the example problems where I would wonder for half an hour where I went wrong. Some of the errors are obvious, others are difficult or near impossible to spot if you are trying to relearn this material and remember very little. I am sure there are significantly more errors since my review did not cover the book comprehensively and I'm sure I missed a lot as well.
2. The text is not very well written. Some sections go into too much detail while others simply scratch the surface. There were times when I learned more from reading the EIT handbook than from this review book.
3. Lastly, I was a little disappointed when I went to take the practice exam and I found several identical questions to the practice problems provided in the different chapters. The least they could have done was make sure not to reuse questions so that when we'd like to take the practice exam we haven't just seen the questions from review sections.