Mathematical Methods in Linquistics is far more about mathematical methods than about linguistics, although in many places linquistics is used as a source of examples.

Instead it covers such mathematical topics as sets (including infinite sets), relations, a good deal of mathematical logic,
automata (up to turing machines), the lambda calculus, lattices and more.

This would be an excellent book for an advanced undergraduate or graduate student in either mathematics or computer science to use
either as a review text, or as a study guide for further investigation.

Strong,successful women are people too! Barbara Pate Glacel delivers this message with refreshing candor in her book, Hitting the Wall: Memoir of A Cancer Journey. Her feelings of anger, frustration, isolation, and loss of self-determination as she confronts a diagnosis of breast cancer are described in a manner that touches the reader at both the emotional and intellectual level. Barbara helps the reader to understand and empathize with the challenges any patient diagnosed with a potentially terminal illness faces and confronts every day. Her humor and caring for her family, friends, and acquaintances shines throughout her personal story. Surviving is more than perservering and enduring what life puts in one's path. It is also confronting one's fears and anxieties in order to overcome and defeat them. Barbara provides us with an action plan on how to achieve victory. I plan on making this book part of any support and comfort I might give to those entering the battle against a life-threatening disease such as breast cancer.

Hitting the Wall documents the feared experience of breast cancer in such a way that the reader is uplifted and enlightened. Barbara Glacel describes her ordeal with breast cancer vividly and with such detail that I found myself walking with her every step of the way. I could not put the book down. I laughed. I cried. Barbara is so open in her book, describing every aspect of this dreadful disease and how it affected her and her family. It made me aware of the support we all need when faced with something like this. Barbara had a huge network of friends and family and she needed every one of them. I am grateful to Barbara for sharing her experience. Every person who knows someone suffering from this disease or who has experienced breast cancer first hand would benefit from reading this book.

Barbara skillfully captures the essence of a breast cancer survivor's journey. Even though each of our stories is unique, she takes us through the various phases of her illness in a way that we can identify with, while at the same time marvel at her courage and strength. Her ability to navigate the health care system of a foreign country, with all it's complexities, while at the same time build her own international network of support is remarkable. Barbara's nobel efforts to become an advoate for other military families struggling with cancer are worthy of our admiration. Her honest self revelations are balanced with grateful praise for her family, friends and medical team. She gives readers an inside view of living with a disease that all women dread, in such a way that we gain hope from her persistent pursuit of wellness and normalcy. I finished Barbara's book on my own 5th year anniversary of "hitting the wall" - an appropriate way to celebrate! I highly recommend this resource to other survivors, friends and family of women faced with breast cancer, as well as medical professionals caring for them.

This book has some excellent, easy-to-follow instructions, which in itself is a major plus. Walls, floors, you name it, there is something here to please almost everyone and the instructions are clear, precise and straight forward. The numerous photographs are also a great plus.

On the downside, however, the reader will find Debbie's talents lie with the actual techniques and not with colour schemes and interior design. Personally, I find many of rooms to be overly trendy, garishly co-ordinated and rather a mismash of "whatever fits, use it." Thoughtful and thorough advanced planning did not seem to be a component of the finished project. The techniques for walls and floors were creative; as for the furniture, there was little to be found here that impressed me.

The book is worth having for the wall and floor finishes and the techniques used, although I must admit I am still a strong advocate for oil-based materials as opposed to water based. The durability and relatively easy maintenance of oil-based materials cannot be surpassed. The extra cost of an oil-based product is money well spent in the long run. There are some great concepts presented here, and some not so great, depending on whether the reader is buying the book strictly for wall and floor techniques or the total finished concept of design and colour.

This book contains excellent, step-by-step instructions and is especially good for people without much experience in special-effect painting. It's also a good source of ideas for manageable projects. The author's writing style is conversational; it is reassuring for beginners (so that you don't feel that any of the projects are out of your league) but not patronizing.

The only criticism I would mention is that I didn't think that much of the author's sense of aesthetics. (This is just my opinion, of course --- many people would disagree with me.) While Debbie Travis is clearly extremely skilled in special-effect painting, she doesn't seem to be extremely artistic. I guess I mean that she's more of a craftsperson than an artist --- examples of her freehand painting are rather badly done, and the photographed rooms/projects often show painted details that are superfluous, teenager-ish, and kind of tacky.

Having said that, however, I want to emphasize that I think that the book has great instructions and very nice photos. It's kind of inspiring, and Debbie Travis is an extremely skilled, likable, and effective teacher.

Tired of white walls, I purchased (and returned) several books in an effort to learn how to make my new home look like those photographed in magazines. In particular, I was looking for an easy procedure for the Ragging Off finish. Debbie Travis' book provides that and more. Each finish for walls, furniture and floors includes a brief description, a list of paint and tools, easy instructions with photographs and several variations of the featured theme. Equally important, her TIP sidebars helped me avoid costly and time consuming mistakes. The most creative chapter, Patterns, includes Squeegee Stripes, Combing, Terra-Cotta Tiles and Stone Blocking. Another favorite is the Carrara Marble effect in the Stone Finishes chapter. This book has something for everyone regardless of style preference, experience or ability. It's an absolute must for novices and professionals alike!

"The Walls of Air" is the sequel to Hambly's "The Time of the Dark". Although the characters are just as interesting to watch as in the previous book, the events move along much more slowly. I'd say that this book suffers from middle-book-itis, as it mostly spends time setting things up for the third book, "The Armies of Daylight".

I think that the SF Book Club published this trilogy in one volume many years ago; if you are new to the Darwath books, try getting that one volume instead of buying this reprint edition.

This is one of my favorite series by one of my favorite authors. If you have a low tolerence for journeys mental and spiritual, you'll find this book pretty sleep-inducing.

I actually liked it, but I like to watch Ingold work, and I find Gil's learning process and scholarly work facinating. There's lots of both in this book, unlike the more exciting first and last books.

This whole series is delightful and if Ms. Hambly writes as many of these as Anne McCaffrey's Pern and Andre Norton's Witch World, I wouldn't complain. An excellent sequel.

Although I first read this book many years ago I have never forgotten its cast of characters and genuinely shocking but satisfyingly believable denouement. The theatre world of New York is rocked when a number of prominient professionals become the victims of viciously personal attacks. A stage manager loses his hand-an actress is disfigured when her face cream is laced with acid... Gradually the link emerges; many years in the past all of them were members of a one theatre group-but why are they being targetted now? Who wants revenge so badly and why? None of them can imagine who holds this grudge. While being a real page-turner this is a genuinely profound character study and the central characters are well-rounded and complex. The plot turns are credible as well as fascinating and the finale is truly explosive. I strongly recommend this to any-one with an interest in detective stories, whodunnits, strong female leads or just fresh and insightful writing.

Chapters of Taking Inquiry Outdoors: Reading, Writing and Science Beyond the Classroom Walls are written by teachers who chose to teach young children specifically to avoid teaching science. These teachers reflect upon their experiences as their students' interests and needs prompted them to incorporate more and more science into their teaching. Experiences with the beauty and fascination of nature are contrasted with their memories of science classes. The chapters are written in a first person, reflective style which makes this book speak to and resonate with other teachers or teachers-to-be who are intimidated by science. The book addresses taking the initial steps toward teaching science as inquiry, linking to the community and incorporating reading in scientific endeavors. In addition, there are chapters written by science teachers of older children who learned important concepts about teaching science while participating in a project with the elementary teachers primarily represented in this book. This book is a must read for every preservice elementary teacher whether you hope to teach science or not. Those who are already teachers should read it for the inspiration and infusion of new, innovative ideas that could strengthen any teacher's work.

This book perpetrates either a gross lapse in scholarship, or racist slander. On page 125 we read:

"What is considered unnatural in one society, as we have often noted, may be perfectly natural in another. A once popular maxim among devout Arabs, for example, was that 'The pilgrimage to Mecca is not perfected save by copulation with a camel.' Bestiality was also not uncommon among the religious Hindus. Among the latter, priests used to urge the devout to copulate with cattle or monkeys, both of which are sacred to the Hindu religion." [end quote]

Now this purports to be a scholarly book, and has many references - nine notes documenting other points in just this same chapter (11). It is even no. 27 of the series "Contributions in Sociology." Yet for some unknown reason the authors choose NOT to document these remarkable claims of socially approved bestiality. Where is this "once popular maxim of devout Arabs" to be found?

Perhaps the authors saw it on a toilet wall, since indeed for many years one could read such claims about Arabs there. But "The Handwriting on the Wall" was first published in 1977, probably prior to, and perhaps a source for, the graffiti. As for the Hindus and the monkeys, this reminds me of the crime drama plot of murdering a second victim to cover the motives for the first. Again, the authors provide no source for these remarkable urgings to "devout" Hindus, nor to the survey data that such acts were "not uncommon."

I am not saying dehumanizing revelations about ethnic and religious groups should be censored from all publications. But for damn sure if they are used they should be documented. This book should be denounced and boycotted until either these ethnic slanders are removed, or the authors provide reliable sources for their amazing claims.