A truly inspirational read! A beautiful story, of how a hideous tragedy was turned around by the Grace of God. A very compelling book!

This is one of the best books I have ever read. I pick it up and re-read it often. The Smith family has such amazing faith. This book will minister to you. It is also an exciting page turner. You really start to feel that you know this family. I would highly recommend it!

At times while reading Dawn's book, I found myself thinking that I was reading a novel about a popular horror movie. (Actually, the tragedy was cast as a made-for-TV movie.)Horrific indeed is Dawn's family's story, and I sat on the edge of the couch in tears as I reminded myself every other chapter that her story was real, actual--a story that hits home. It could have happened to anybody. What is more amazing, as the title states, is the grace Dawn learned through this tragedy and the powerful testimony her story tells about the strength He provides.

Jordan Smith, Lucky Seven (Wesleyan, 1988)

Jordan Smith's second book of poems is a fine one. On the ashcan-to-academic scale once proposed (with tongue only half in cheek) by an editorial wag at a small-press magazine, Smith falls solidly within the realm of academia, yet his poems contain one quality that is markedly absent from the majority of academic poets: accessibility. Perhaps more than any poet since T. S. Eliot, Jordan Smith combines the elevation of language that marks poetry with both the erudition that distinguishes the "academic" poet and the plain speaking that makes the subjects upon which he writes understandable to the guy on the street. This isn't poetry that requires, or even begs, deep study to get at the meanings therein. There are, of course, many layers beneath for those who want to find them. But it's possible to enjoy the work of Jordan Smith simply because it is.

Note that this technique is tried by many an aspiring poet, and in most cases it results in spectacularly bad failures. (Ah, the world wide web. Stop by a few poetry sites at random, or better yet personal web pages where the aspiring unpublished have posted the best of their high-school angst. It shouldn't take you long to see what I'm getting at.) Somehow, somewhere along the way, it seems most poets are either captured by the University system and molded into the basic academic or captured by the University system and rebel (i.e., molded into the basic ashcan). Somehow, Smith managed to tread the whole line without being molded either way, and he fooled so many people into thinking he had been that he landed a book at one of the premier academic presses. Good for you, Jordan Smith, and may you be the beginning of a renaissance of erudite poetry that the average Joe can understand. ****

I have mixed feelings about Michael Jordan. On the one hand, he is a great athlete. I respect his work ethic. He has turned in a number of great performances and is no doubt one of the greatest to have ever played the game of basketball.

There is a flipside. Michael Jordan got all kinds of special treatment while he was in the NBA. He was the first player I noticed who was granted all kinds of trips to the charity stripe because of unbelievably, ticky tack calls. He scored at least ten points a game at the free throw line from bogus calls. It was great when there was a picture session for 'greats of the game' with Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordan. Magic told Larry not to stand too close to Michael or they might call a foul. In front of reporters and television viewers, that was a classic comment by Magic. I believe Mike got 99% of all calls in his favor because he was such a cash cow for the NBA. Dominique Wilkins was robbed of a slam dunk championship when Mike scored a perfect 50 doing the same dunk Dr. J did years before. I doubt Dr. J ever received a perfect 50 for it. Dominique's dunk was much more impressive, and he received a 49.5. Please. Mike got in a fight with Reggie Miller, and only Miller got suspended at first. Only after there was an outcry did Mike get suspended. How are Mike's punches different? Mike elbowed Kevin Johnson to the ground for all to see, and Kevin was called for blocking!

I am not too impressed that the bulls beat the lakers in the NBA finals. Magic was double teamed every game every minute he was in. On top of that, James Worthy and Byron Scott were injured. Magic and Larry never won three championships in a row because the competition, teams, and players in the 80s were much better than the nineties. Luc Longley, Will Perdue, Bill Cartwright, or Bill Wennington stopping Kareem? Ha!

Sport Magazine recently had a piece on the ten greatest moments and ten greatest players ever in the NBA. Mike was ranked number one all time player. Kudos to Mike for mentioning in 'For the love of the game' that to pick a "greatest ever" is impossible because of all the different eras and evolutions of basketball. The nineties bulls were given three of the ten greatest moments in NBA history. This is just more Mike bias. Give me a break. There are hundreds of classic and amazing moments in NBA history. One of the moments picked was Mike beating the Jazz in the final minutes of his last game. He put his hand on Bryon Russel's backside and shoved him out of the way. Then Mike made the game winnig shot. All eyes were on Mike, but the ref did not make the obvious call.

There is also Mike's arrogance. According to him, Wilt Chamberlain was a fluke eventhough Wilt was a great all around player. He made a comment about Magic and Larry reaching a 'certain level of greatness' and that the two were not good on defense. What? Are we talking about the same Larry Bird? Shaquille Oneal is also much better and much improved than Mike gives him credit for. Shaq has turned into a solid defender, passer, and he works hard at both ends of the floor.

Mike's corporate poster boy behavior is laughable. He did ads for AT&T and then MCI. The Wayans family is also split between the two companies. Mike talked about the enviroment in Rayovac ads and then pitches hot dogs? Mike is not the only athlete who will pitch anything and everything to make millions. I wonder if Mike has checked into Nike's labor practices.

Players like Mike and Charles Barkley soured me on the NBA. Charles played like a thug and got away with it because he was a star. Plus, Charles insisted on wearing number 34 at Philadelphia eventhough it was retired for NBA great Billy Cunningham. The star treatment and inflated egos has grown old, and that has turned a lot of people off to sports. I miss the Lakers and Celtics match ups of the 1980s.

"Second Coming: The Strange Odyssey of Michael Jordan - from Courtside to Home Plate and Back Again," by Sam Smith, is a biogarphy about Michael Jordan. It starts out a little before he won his first NBA championship with the Chicago Bulls. It tells about the seasons leading up to his retirement in October of 1993. Through that time, the author talks about the next two seasons. It talks about Jordans' personality at the time, and some of the problems he was having to deal with. It profiles Jordans' gambling troubles and the troubles he was having with the media. This book is similar to the book "Tiger Woods: The Makings of a Champion." These two books are very similar because of their genre. They are both biographies about famous sports stars. The only difference between the two is that the Tiger Woods book talks more about his childhood than the Michael Jordan book does. I thought that this book was very good. I liked it because I really liked the structure of it. I thought that it was really easy to read because it goes in a logical order. I think that since it has good order, this serves as a good model for writing. There really is not much imagery in the book because it is a biography. I thought that this book was very good because it tells a lot of good stuff about Michael Jordan's professional career. I think that one thing that this book lacked was information on his personal life. I think that I could have realated better to the story had there been more personal info on him. I think that anybody who likes to follow Michael Jordan would enjoy this book very much. Overall I liked this book a lot and I hope to read more books by this author.

I agree with back and forth. People who slam the book are biased. MJ has a good and bad side, and the people who whine are probably his fans or have shares in his company. The problem is players from different eras can't be compared. How do you compare Oscar Robertson to Earvin Johnson? You can't...but you can compare them relative to the players in their era, to players they played against, and compare their relative greatness to the relative greatness to the players from other eras. Compare Michael to others relative to his contribution of others...don't just compare scoring, or Dominique Wilkins would be surely better than Bill Russell...only a misinformed or ignorant NBA basketball fan would think something as preposterous as that. Kudos for Sam Smith and taking off the kid gloves. If the book is all trash journalism, why didn't Michael sue for slander or defamation of character? There must be some truth to it.

One big disappointment about the book is that, not only are few solutions to problems provided, there are a relatively large number of errors in the solutions which are presented. This is very frustrating to students trying to learn this material. Given that the text is in its second edition, this is really not understandable.

The book is surprisingly inexpensive, however. Perhaps it cost less to publish since proofreaders were not utilized.

If you need as few texts as possible that cover all the maths you need for engineering purposes, this book is a must buy. Adding Kreyzig's Advanced Engineering Mathematics and maybe a Statistics text to it and you should have no problems with 99% of the maths for the rest of your life (unless you want to do substantial computer program design, in which a discrete maths text may help).

A few problems though: a proper treatment on sequences and series is absent, l'Hopital's rule is not discussed either (both presumably because they are too pure maths for engineering, but some advanced engineering maths courses do use them), and there are some topics (like Simpson's rule) that are only discussed in problems sections but not in the main text.

Whether your personal focus is upon mathematics, engineering, physics, or even computer science or the arts, this work provides a superb instructional foundation for applied mathematics.

Beginning with differentiation and integration, the text continues on its mathematical journey, taking the reader through complex numbers, linear algebra, differential equations, even LaPlace transforms and Fourier series. It then ends with overview chapters on such varied topics as graph theory, set theory, boolean algebra, probability and statistics. In addition there is a section devoted to using symbolic computing with applications such as Mathematica, which are essential to anyone interested in learning or using mathematics today.

The overall look of the book is exquisite. The typefaces, equations and graphs are a pleasure to the eye (even as they grow substantially in complexity). The prose discusses the subject matter with rigor, yet is easy to read and guides gradually and carefully.

Anyone wishing to review the fundamentals of mathematics or to further the education started through school will find this book to be a joy to go through. Solutions to many exercises are provided in an appendix.

The softcover edition is highly durable. Upon completion of every chapter the reader will have substantial expertise in or exposure to major branches and topics of mathematics. For this wealth of information to have so low a cost is remarkable.

Highest possible recommendation, with superlative marks in virtually all categories of review.

The authorized biography, written in 1980 and updated in 1990. Not a bad book, summarizes Smith's life and contains a number of testimonial's by former players, including an introduction by Michael Jordan. Not as detailed as Smith's own recent memoir nor as revealing as Art Chansky's book, really only for the dedicated Dean Smith fan.

Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen are on a 2 on 1 fast break. Jordan with the ball lays it high off of the glass. Pippen slams it home for two points. I read The Jordan Rules by Sam Smith. This is a book about the Chicago Bulls in the 1991-1992 NBA season. I did not think this was a very good book. It only had a few good details but there were not enough to keep you interested. Another bad thing about this is its long chapters. The chapters just seemed like they would take forever to read. Some of the book didn't even talk about Jordan. It would talk about his teammates like Horace Grant, Bill Cartwright, and BJ Armstrong. They were always complaining about playing time and not ever getting the ball because Michael was a ball hog and the only other person he would pass the ball to was Scottie Pippen. Horace Grant and Bill Cartwright gave it the name Michael Ball. Jordan always had special rules. Like on road trips he was allowed to bring two of his best friends with him so that way he would feel comfortable. No one else on the team was even allowed to bring family members. At the end of the book the Bulls won the NBA Championship. If I were you I would not waste my money in buying this book because that would be a waste of money. There were not enough details and the chapters were way to long. Don't go wasting your time or money in reading or buying this book.

I would recomend this book because it shows the private life of Micheal Jordan and the personal problems micheal went through. The book shows how Micheal Jordan built the Chicago Bulls franchise. How he turned a losing team to the most winning team of the ninty's.