Once I started reading The Presidents' Doctor, I found it difficult to put the book down. What especially intrigued me were the insights into the personal sides of Presidents Harding, Coolidge and Hoover as seen by Dr. Joel Boone, who served as a White House physician during their administrations. Despite their prominence, the three Presidents had individual and family joys, sorrows and challenges just as everyone else.

As I read Mr. Heller's descriptions, I pictured myself in the shoes of Dr. Boone and his family. Imagine meeting, providing medical care to and socializing with key national (and in some cases international) leaders and then at the end of the day returning to "regular" home life and routines.

The book captures the spirit of the times it covers. As an example, the reader can easily imagine the scene of President Harding and his entourage on their meandering, transcontinental train trip followed by an ocean voyage to Alaska and then a last train trip down the Pacific Coast to San Francisco where Harding met his untimely death. Indeed, in our current era of ever-faster communication, it is hard to conceive of a President running the nation without the benefit of airplanes, televisions, computers, fax machines, cell phones, etc. Yet, despite the lack of these conveniences, the leaders of the time somehow were able to manage the country.

In summary, I highly recommend The Presidents' Doctor for an absorbing and personalized account of three Presidential administrations and life in the U.S. in the early part of the 20th century through the perspective of the extremely dedicated and talented White House physician, Dr. Joel Boone.

If this book were a novel it would be a great read.. It is lively, has fascinating characters, and colorful background.

As a novel, however, it would have one fatal problem. As my English professor used to say, it would lack "an aura of verisimilitude". To put it in plain English, "You wouldn't believe it!".

However, it's not a novel. It is a well researched and thoroughly documented LIVE history book. It describes an absolutely incredible man, who performed absolutely incredible feats in his admirable life.

A few examples:

Joel Boone was a medical doctor. He was awarded a congressional medal of honor, the nation's highest award for bravery, while he was serving as a doctor! There are few enough medal of honor winners, but did you ever hear of a doctor - a non-combatant - winning one? Now you have.

In his early days he led and commanded troops in combat, even though his commission was as a medical officer.

He served several U.S. presidents and their families as their doctor.

Any one of these by itself is interesting and unusual. Taken all together they are unheard of - until now.

The book has a tremendous advantage over a novel. Since it reports on a real person, who really did these astonishing things, you have to believe they really happened. Poetic license would never get you this far. This is a book you don't want to miss.

Milton F. Heller,Jr. tells the story of his father-in-law with grace and lucidity. Admiral Boone came out of Pennsylania, along with his wife, to carve a nitch in history. His career spanned 50 years, a youthful Medal of Honor, serving as doctor to three first families, to director of Vetrans Administration. This slim volume is just what the doctor ordered for all americans who love their heroes. Great Christmas gift.

There have been a number of helpful New Testament introductions written for the Evangelical community, including the older volume by Guthrie and the newer work by Carson, Moo and Morris. And there have been many fine NT theologies as well. Volumes by Ladd, Caird and Guthrie, among others, have served the Evangelical community well.

This new volume offers a bit of both worlds: introductory matters, as well as theological concerns. Written for students and lay people, it will serve as a good intermediary text. Advanced students may find it wanting in areas, but it does offer, if in brief form, some of the latest scholarship on the NT.

The three authors all teach interpretation at American seminaries. They have all produced a number of outstanding works on aspects of the NT. Green for example has authored the well received New International Commentary on Luke; Meye Thompson wrote on 1-3 John for the IVP New Testament Commentary Series, and Achtemeier did the Hermeneia commentary on 1 Peter.

This volume is especially good on Jesus and the Gospels. Indeed, along with sections on introductory matters and Acts, it takes up the first half of the book. The remainder of the book offers brief chapters on the other 22 books of the New testament. Each chapter concludes with a short bibliography of recent works, usually half of which are commentaries.

The chapters highlight the usual concerns: matters of authorship and historical setting, theological themes and literary issues. Photos, maps and supplementary text blocks all contribute to a highly usable and informative volume.

The study is neither too technical nor too detailed to be lost on a lay person or beginning student. Yet it is scholarly and up-to-date enough to be of use to more advanced students as well. As with all theological works, there will be some areas of disagreement.

For example, since none of the three authors comes from a Reformed perspective (not that they need to), there are areas in which one might beg to differ. Perhaps the most obvious example of this arises in the chapter on Romans. One passage in which quite a lot of ink has been spilled is Romans 7 and the identity of the "I" who struggles with sin.

While a number of options present themselves, many argue that Paul is describing his own experience as a believer (and by implication that of all other believers). Pick up any 10 good commentaries on Romans, and perhaps as many as half will argue this position Yet in this volume the authors simply dismiss such an interpretation as "impossible".

One would have thought that careful scholars such as Cranfield, Murray, and Dunn, for example, would not embark upon such impossible hermeneutical assignments!

But leaving aside the occasional theological quibble, this volume well serves its purpose as an introductory text on basic NT matters. Others may go into more background detail (such as the volume by Carson, Moo and Morris, or more fully examine the theological or literary aspects (Ladd, or Caird - in addition to his NT Theology, see his invaluable Language and Imagery of the Bible), but this volume will fill a niche and should enjoy a long run with students of the NT.

This book is a bible student's dream come true. It is written in an engaging manner. The scholarship is superb. The book's structure, theological content, and balanced treatment, make it a valuable resource for New Testament Study. At a time when there is a proliferation of books and monographs on biblical subjects, Achtemeier, Green, and Thompson, produce a jewel for the serious student of scripture. This book is destined to become an instant classic.

I purchased both of the How to Ace Calculus books: "How to Ace Calculus : The Streetwise Guide," and "How to Ace the Rest of Calculus: The Streetwise Guide: Including Multi-Variable Calculus."

Here in Boston, I went to several large bookstores and checked out all the "Calc Help" books. The "How to Ace" books are infinitely superior to the others. As a matter of fact, it is a whole separate species of book. The authors have an unusual ability to explain in a style that is crystal clear, and they make the subject a lot more hospitable with their wonderful sense of humor.

Most math texts are written by Ph.D. mathematicians who have absolutely no empathy or insight into the difficulties that non-math majors like myself encounter when setting out to learn subjects such as calculus. As a result, their textbooks are about as pleasant as viewing the aperture of a colostomy.

I just hope that the authors bless mankind with future titles, such as "How to Ace Differential Equations" and "How to Ace Linear Algebra." If they are so kind as to do so, I can assure you that the world will be a better place to live.

As with the preceeding book, "How to Ace Calculus..." the authors have again presented in this text something which is all too rare in the realm of undergraduate mathematics: Math for undergrads that is understandable by undergrads! I can't count the times I've had a math professor discuss something which made sense mathematically (we got the proof) but intuitively left me nowhere. Even if you understand the mathematics of a proof, it doesn't necessarily imply that you understand the concept or idea behind it. This happens a LOT in the study of statistics, that much I can attest to from personal experience.

I've discovered, due in no small part to reading both of these texts, that intuition is just as important as the actual mathematical process. I firmly believe you can't effectively learn the latter without a good helping of the former. This book does not fail the student of calculus in this respect, not by any measure. Intuition is presented, albeit with humorous examples, in a way that just about anyone can grasp. This alone makes it worth the cheap price.

Because of this book I was able to genuienly take in and understand the material of my calculus III (multivariable & vector calc) class. I've gained a tremendous amount of self confidence when it comes to math. What I used to fear I now embrace learning and eagerly study like any other subject of interest. This book, indeed both in the series, will above all else help liberate you from fearing mathematics. You will see, even if it has to be through some humor, that math is nothing to be afraid of and can be understood just as easily as any other subject in college. All you need is the desire to learn and a clear exposition of the material. Wanting to learn is up to you, but this book can and does provide the rest.

No book is a replacement for an instructor and a "raw" classroom text with rigerous exposition and gross detail. This text and it's authors explicitly state this is not their purpose. Instead they provide a much needed bridge between the depth of a typical classroom text, and the needs of the typical student to have the processes and ideas presented in a manner they can actually relate to. Once that gap is bridged, you can actually learn something form your regular classroom text and instructor.

Do yourself an immense favor and purchase this book. Even if you only use it once or twice you will certainly get our money's worth.

Taking Calculus III at UCONN, this book saved my neck countless times. If you don't learn well from staring at equations, don't understand the textbook by itself, or any of those other "study guides," this book will give you a clue. We used James Stewart's Calculus, 4th edition, and this proved to be, in my opinion, an excellent companion. This book sifts through the fluff and esoteric jargon and gives you a down-to-earth, to-the-point explanation with hilarious examples. The authors give you everything you need and nothing you don't: the formula(s) and a couple easily understandable examples that are actually interesting to read. When finals come around, there's even a nice course synopsis and likely final problems in an appendix at the end. My only complaint is that the index is a little lacking, but since it's such a condensed book, you can usually leaf through and find what you're looking for. There were a couple of concepts from the course that were missing in this book, but other than that it followed pretty closely. If you're an average Joe student like me, get this book -- it'll save you a lot of trouble.

I am heading back to school to finish up a Mathematics degree. Been away from school for a while, and even though I've completed Calc I, II and III (over 8 years ago), Calc is the prereq for my remaining advanced math courses. What to do?!?

Found this little gem three weeks ago, ordered it, and finished it tonight (an hour or two each night, and still living my life)! Given the textbook racket that seems to have become more costly than courses - not to mention filled with sometimes _too_ much information - I'm happy to say that this book is cleverly written, to the point, yet thorough with the principles and explanations of the general principles of Calculus.

I recommend this book to anyone who is:

a) about to take a beginning Calulus course
b) in need of an excellent refresher on the topic
c) would like to learn Calculus for fun, in a fun way!

Thanks goes out to the previous reviewers, and to the authors for taking the time to care about the student by setting the egos aside (next week it's on to How to Ace: the Rest of Calculus)!

"How to ace calculus: the streetwise guide" is a most delightful book. It's been about 20 years since i've studied calculus and this book refreshed my memory as to the various concepts and techniques required to master CALCULUS I. I'll go a bit further in my accolades in assuring readers that this book cleared up some concepts that were not so evident in my first go-round with CALCULUS.

As for over-indulging egos, i feel that when an author or authors (as is the case with this book) can bring lucidity and simplicity to a subject that many fear, i don't mind if said writer(s) wish to pat themselves on the back a bit. What disturbs me much more is the bloated ego of a university prof who delights in the fact that most students do not understand the material that he or she is being paid to present in a comprehensible manner.

Again, i tip my hat to these guys for having written a most interesting, yet informative, mathematics text. :-)))

A+++++++

My dad bought me this book the summer before my senior year in high school (this year) - I looked at it and thought, "yeah, right." I'm a humanities person, I got a C in my last term of Pre-calculus, and I didn't think some book was going to help. However, once my AP Calc class started, I thought "hey, might as well give it a try." That was the best idea I've had in a long time. Mr. Adams and friends explain the concepts so clearly that I have to wonder what the authors of standard calculus texts were thinking when they wrote their books. Not only do I have an A- in the class, I have a much better understanding of what we're actually learning than the students who used to do better than me by just following all the formulas. In short, I am acing calculus, and (this is very hard for me to admit) enjoying it as well. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who panics at the thought of calculus.

Joel Achenbach knows a lot of stuff about a lot of stuff. More importantly, he's willing to go out and ask people when he doesn't know (and doesn't mind giving credit when credit is due, which gives the answers more authority.) Although not as funny as Cecil Adams, his book is still an excellent read. Unlike some authors in this genre, I've never known him to spend pages on dumb, obvious, or other softball questions. In addition to answering questions, he's also got essays, which I liked less well. The book also comes with cartoons, which are quite funny.