This has to be my personal favorite collection of poems. I discovered the author not long ago from a friend who is an aquaintance of his, and I have since been captivated by his expressive language and beautiful rendering of the essence of Midwestern life. A brilliant volume of poetry, as are his other published collections, "The Monon Doesn't Stop Here Anymore" and "White Collar Ballads."

Some great mathematicians are born and others are made by having ability that is well applied. Furthermore, even if they do not understand it, nearly all people appreciate mathematics and all it is used for. The last group is more to the point of this book, in that the definition of a mathematician as referenced in the title is being extended to include those who appreciate what mathematics can do. Functions in math libraries are what I use as first examples as objects in my programming courses. Even though the students do not understand the behavior of functions such as the sine and cosine, they do understand the concept of a function call better when it is presented in a mathematical context.
This book is a collection of many mathematical discoveries that have occurred down through the centuries. Some have significant applications, but most would be excellent fits within the definition of recreational mathematics. Topics such as patterns in numbers, mathematical games and mathematics for enjoyment are covered. Problems for examination and clarification are interspersed throughout the chapters with solutions at the end of the chapter. It is an ideal book for those who are interested in mathematics as a subject to explore for the purity of expression. As is pointed out in the text, there is a finality found in mathematics that exists nowhere else. Once something is proven and the proof is completely verified, the theorem is then an absolute truth. The level of difficulty is such that a solid background in algebra is the only requirement for understanding what is being described.
While the level of student performance in mathematics at all levels is often depressing, it is gratifying to see so many popular mathematics books being published. It is clear that there is a solid market for such material, which uplifts the spirits of all who appreciate the beauty and power of math. Reading this book will help place you in that category if you are not already a member.

Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission.

This is certainly an interesting ride through the forests of mathematics.

The book is a very detailed and deep look at all branches of mathematics, and a very good look at many different curiosities and bewilderments. D.G. Wells starts with a brief look at triangles, numbers, and patterns and goes on to talk about the enjoyment of mathematics and certainty and proof. In between, he ventures into the world of mathematical games, the most famous of which is Conway's Game of Life. He also talks of modeling the universe, or at least certain aspects of it, using mathematics - and using mathematics to search for the truth. He concludes with a "mathematical adventure," where you, the reader, travels through a series of linked frames exploring a certain mathematical curiousity.

I recommend this book for teenagers developing an interest in mathematics, but also for those who think that mathematics can't be interesting, and even for math teachers - so that they can take a look at their work and all its wonderful applications.

This book is a very intense look at mathematics; however, it is not so far out of reach that the average persion couldn't understand. It doesn't take more than a high school understanding of some basic algebra and geometry to truly enjoy this book. But be warned! This book is tough, and best tackled with plenty of scrap paper to try some of the problems. If you complete the book, you will have learned some very clever problem- solving skills.

Here you'll find: Van Richten's Guide to Fiends, Van Richten's Guide to the Vistani and Van Richten's Guide to Witches . If you are looking for rare monsters you sould look in this accessory.

This is the one you HAVE to get. I have ALL the Van Richten "Guides", but this one carries the "Guide to Witches" which has never before been published! So, if you thought you had it all, you don't. Don't be fooled, however, with volumes 1 & 2. If you have ALL the Van Richten "Guides", you already have ALL of 1 & 2 and most of 3. The "Guide to Demons" is nothing more than "Van Richten's Guide To Fiends"! It was renamed for these publications. Volume 3 is the one to get!

David Wise writes the story of a spy thriller. Nerve Agents are actually only a side-line story. Much of the focus is on the FBI, HUMINT, and counter intel.

For those familiar with CBW, the story about dangling a deception such as Nerve Agent GJ, is intreging. GJ is not chemically identified, but presented as a protential Nerve Agent that would have required considerable efforts in binary weapons technology to ever be of any use. The author contends that this deception might have inadvertently lead the Soviets to create their Novichok class of agents. The discussion of GJ leads one to suspect it was a relative of the GV-series, such as Nerve Agent GP (GP11, or GV).

In the context of GJ, the author reveals that there were actually many more agents than just the familiar GA, GB, GD, GE, and GF. There G-series actually went all the way down to GH (isopentyl sarin). The treatment of Nerve Agents is conversational, and suits the purpose of his book.

David Wise made many interviews and performed as an investigative journalist to deliver a story that up to now has not been told. It does reveal the cultures of the people of the time, and is suggestive of many areas of future historic investigation.

Smoothly written and absorbing. Not my usual kind of book, but well worth picking up. In 1959, at the height of the Cold War, the FBI decided to dangle a prospect in front of a Soviet embassy employee named Polikarpov. Policarpov, a GRU officer, took the bait and enlisted Sergeant Joseph Cassidy as a for-cash agent. The relationship continued for twenty-three years, during which Cassidy solicited information that netted ten other Soviet spies and funneled an enormous mass of true, false, misleading, and trivial intelligence eastward. Much of the intelligence concerned the nerve gas research and production facility at Edgewood Arsenal, and may have led the Soviets into expensive and dangerous blind alleys. Details of the operation, especially the capture and release of two Mexican nationals who were confessed spies, make an interesting account of a US intelligence success not previously publicized.

This is an amazing story from the very real (and too soon slipping from memory) Cold War. It is principally the story of Joe Cassidy, a rather normal sergeant in the US Army, who was recruited to become a dangle for a Soviet Agent. The ploy worked and Cassidy became a double agent for more than twenty years. Of course, these kinds of stories rather quickly become rather entangled with lots of personalities and different threads of action. The author, David Wise, does an especially fine job in telling this tale and helping us keep straight who is doing what when and to whom.

The details of surveillance and spycraft are fascinating because they are so mundane but in their context seem so strange. This story demonstrates so many of the critical factors in running a counter intelligence operation: the importance of selecting the right agent (in this case Joe Cassidy), the necessity of patience and letting some things slip away in order to keep after the big thing, the chess like thinking of move and countermove in planning operations, the never-quite-sure aspects of whom to trust and what is real or what is a plant, and the role of just plain dumb luck. It isn't like Hollywood, but in many ways is more strange than a movie. If you tried to put some of this stuff in a movie people would complain that it was too far fetched. Yet this is all real.

The book also has some rather chilling information on Nerve Agents, which was the whole point of this many year effort by the FBI and other government agencies. It also has a lot of fascinating information on the devices of spy tradecraft including hollow rocks, rollover cameras, dead drops, micro dots, secret writing, and more.

Because the book is so well written it is a rather easy read. This is a real achievement because of the complexity of the story, but David Wise has long experience as a skilled reporter and writer about intelligence work and knows how to tell these tales. I recommend this book to everyone because it is just plain interesting, because I believe we should keep the reality and sacrifices of the Cold War in our collective memory, and because real people paid with their lives for our security.

There are now 4+ books dealing with the story of FBI agent Robert Hanssen, codename GRAY DAY, who spied for The Soviet Union for over twenty years, without either his Russian spymasters, nor the FBI knowing his identity until $7 million was paid for his KGB file. Although Wise's book leaves many unanswered questions, "Spy" is definitely one of the best. Hanssen does rank with Aldrich Ames, but one is still left to wonder what actual harm did these two do to the National Security of the United States?

P> But like Tad Szulc's "To Kill the Pope," this volume has not answered many of the questions surrounding Opus Dei and Hanssen's affiliation with that flagellic cult. Thus if one follows the money paid Hanssen, one finds that it leads directly to Opus Dei coffers, e.g. tuition payments of Hanssen's children to attend the Opus Dei schools, Oakcrest for his girls, and the Heights for the boys. It is illustrative that this Catholic convert was told by his confessor to turn over his early Soviet payments to Mother Theresa, of Christopher Hitchens' "The Missionary Position" repute. The Nobel Prize winning nun also had Charles Keating and Baby Doc as sources of funds. Hanssen's wife agreed that this was an appropriate penance for his sins of expionage on behalf of "godless" Communism.

Opus Dei's prelature even stepped in to urge Hanssen's wife not to make no statements about her husband since that might delay its founder's elevation to sainthood by John Paul II.
Louis Freeh, head of the FBI was a fellow parishioner of Hanssen's which may explain why other FBI Opus Dei acolytes were hesitant to pursue a member of Opus Dei Study Center or Catholic Information Center, which was staffed by an Opus Dei priest, Rev. C. John Mc Closkey, and located a short distance from the J. Edgar Hoover headquarters. Other fellow parishioners were Justices Scalia and Thomas.

So yet another paradox needs to be added to Joan Estruch's "Saints & Schemers: Opus Dei and its Paradoxes" to join Jack Dunn's "The Vatican Boys: A Novel about Church Corruption."

A.M.D.G.

This is a fascinating book. I couldn't put it down; stayed up until the wee hours of the morning to completely read in one sitting. David Wise definitely has contacts inside the FBI and CIA, otherwise it would be difficult to understand where he obtained his information. He goes into great detail and leaves one wondering exactly how competent are these agencies. I recommend this book to anyone who desires a better understanding as to how the FBI and CIA operate. After reading this book, you will want to read Wise's book on the Aldrich Ames case.

I have read four books on the Hanssen case and this is by far the best. It offers a well-researched story about all aspects of the Hanssen case and includes detailed information about the inside workings of the FBI and CIA. It also manages to be extremely thorough without focusing excessively on the more lurid aspects of Hanssen's betrayals. Wise gives a vivid picture of how espionage works, what the effects of Hanssen's spying were, and why Hanssen was able to remain undetected for so long. The only flaw, if one can call it that, is Wise's somewhat dry prose style and matter-of-fact approach to storytelling. Other books have more of the salacious details, such as the text of Hanssen's pornographic e-mails and descriptions of his relationship with a stripper, but if you only have time for one Hanssen book this is definitely the one.

THE MOTLEY FOOL INVESTMENT GUIDE is a rare creature: A book full of valuable wisdom and ridiculous conjecture at the very same time. Pay attention to the former and you will be better off, and you face major risks with the latter.

As long as the book focuses on long-term research and trends, it is on solid ground. But the authors are quick to move into conjecture, based on no proof. That is where you are in danger with this book.

The section on short-selling is particularly naive. It makes it sound like you can always cover a short with only a 20 percent loss. Not!

The small cap investing advice is good up to a point. The authors totally ignore research that shows vastly better returns from small-cap growth stock investing at times when small-cap growth stocks are cheapest relative to the p/e ratios of the large cap stocks.

On the dividend-based Dow investing, the authors miss the most important point. Each of the techniques for buying "the dogs of the Dow" has quickly become obsolete in the past. Back testing provides great historical returns, and lousy future returns in this area.

On the most important point, how to use on-line investing to be more successful, the book is almost totally silent.

This book gives the impression to me of being written by inexperienced people who do not have the background to understand what they are thinking about. Through the index fund discussion, though, this is an outstanding and accurate book. It just dives off the deep end without enough swimming lessons in the other areas.

In an overpriced market like the current one, following the Motley Fool theories could make a fool out of you. If you want to try this Motley Fool approach, my advice would be to limit yourself to 10% of your stock investing. With experience, the Motley Fool approach will undoubtedly improve. Remember that fewer than 1 in 10 new techniques for investing work well thruogh an entire market cycle, which is another reason why mutual fund managers have problems.

An absolute must. Some readers have missed the point and have been dismayed by, among other things, the lack of active trading as part of the Fool philosophy (which isn't necessarily true) or that the Fool methods can't be this simple and straightforward-- the Wise Wall Street Wonders must know something after all. One of the marvelous things about this book is that the Brothers G tackle the question of investing from a life perspective (for example; sure, one can be an active day trader, glued to his/her computer screen awaiting stock micro-movements, but who wants to live this way, especially when very few who do so even manage to meet or beat the SP500 for all the work and ulcers involved?) They don't just dive off the cliff in the first chapters with esoteric techniques as in so many other (yawn) books, either. They offer straight talk about who they are, why they do what they do, why and how Wall Street strives to maintain its mystique, and above all, the concept of investing successfully and still remaining both sane and human. In today's extremely hectic fast lane, that extra bit of advice is worth its weight in stock certificates. This book has opened the eyes of a very average guy who previously shunned the stock market as an unfathomable, shark infested hole. I highly recommend it.

The Motley Fool is easy to read, simple to understand and amusing. Yet, the more I read, the more uncomfortable I became. First, it is clearly written for the person with little or no investment experience and no business or economics background. That would seem to limit its audience. I felt at times like I was being talked down to, that this book was not for me. Second, the book gave good advice in some areas - Part II on mutual funds is probably the best. When it reached Part VI on shorting stocks, normally a very risky strategy, I became concerned for the newer investor. In addtion, this book would be more useful if the authors gave some guidelines on how much of one's portfolio should be invested and percentages for using these different approaches. While I say "bravo" to their attempt, I am concerned that what I call The Misconception Stall (making decisions based on incomplete or misleading assumptions) and The Communication Stall (not having the message heard or understood the way it was meant) run rampant here. For example, as companies move with their seasonal or industry cycles, different investment approaches are warranted. Dividend models tend to bring in value players and "bottom fishers" who are there because they are not expecting growth in the stock. Is this where you want to be? Also, there are actions companies can take, such as buying back shares at the bottom of a cycle and issuing shares at the top of a cycle that can result in more rapid stock-price growth than any of these approaches. I hope in The Gardner's next book they will address these issues more "fooly"! Also, new investor would find it very helpful to have a list of questions they should ask the company they are about to invest in. There is no substitute for asking the right questions.

Small Pieces Loosely Joined is a survey of Internet language, experience, and relationships between reality and Web sites makes for intriguing discussions of media and it's influence on human achievement. Weinberger argues the web is more than a worldwide link: it is also a public forum with world contributors and offers the potential for lives to be lived in another realm.

Significant technologies affect the environments within which they operate. Environments shape, warp & re-define the technologies that operate within them. But until "Small Pieces Loosely Joined", there hasn't been a single worthwhile analysis of what these effects are and what they mean.
This *may* be the first significant book written about the major changes the Internet is (and will be) causing among the important minority of people who constitute The Wired World. It's not a business book (though aspiring entrepreneurs would learn some valuable lessons from it), nor is it a "how to" guide. The work is philosophical, sociological, but fun accessible to any reader that has interacted with other people or companies on the web or in a newsgroup. Weinberger's language tends to be simple, and sometimes colorful (e.g., "Knowledge started out fat and chewy", before launching into descriptions of opinions on knowledge from the Bible and Heraclitus).
I don't agree with the author on all his conclusions. And I'm not sure that readers who are widely-read on the social effects of computer networking will not know already many of his explanations.
But there's more valuable, insightful thinking in the first chapter of this book than in any other half-dozen Internet books you could name. If you're interested in how the Internet is changing our institutions and our way of relating to each other, and in what directions this might lead in the future should consider this lively and fun book.

This cluetrain co-author and host of the Journal of the Hyperlinked Organization presents a compelling survey of not what the web should be or could be, but of what it is. Small Pieces looks at our human concepts of space, time, truth and hope, and how the web may not be a perfect world, but unlike the real world, the web is our world. This book is probably going to be a sleeper, the one we later point back at and say, "Here's where we started to understand."

When I started reading Small Pieces, my first thought was "Nice speculation, but how do you know the first-person web is the best web?" Then it hit me: This is not a prescription for how we *should* do Internet, it's a detailed survey of the who, how and why of those who do. David challenges the pundits and frustrates the gurus of web design, but to dismiss him is to discount the grammar of a civil defense warning: Like it or not, Small Pieces is how it is in the online world.

This gentle tale of the value of perseverence is in the best Margaret Wise Brown tradition. Without talking down to young children, she manages to convey the importance of stick-to-itiveness and the great love a young scarecrow boy has for his father. Trying the best he can to live up to his father's work ethic and talents, the little scarecrow boy tries and tries to scare the crows away. Although he fails over and over again, he does eventually succeed and sees that not only is his father proud of him--he is proud of HIMSELF. This is a great lesson quietly told--it's not preachy or high-handed in any way.

Brown's charming tale is greatly bolstered by the color-saturated illustrations of David Diaz. These have a lovely, soft 1930s look that reminds me very much of the illustrations in the original Raggedy Ann and Andy books. I especially like the way Diaz pulls back his perspective on the last page so that you really see why the little scarecrow boy feels, happily, that all is right with the world.

I just read this book to my first grade class and they loved it. It's a great book to introduce the idea of never giving up and feeling proud after a job well done.

Margaret Wise Brown has, through this book, shared with parents how to accept and assist children wanting to take risks and explore life. This is also a wonderful book to use as a way of explaining adult jobs to children. It is a way of aleviating children's fear of separating from parents when they go off to school. The author has shared her humor, creativity and I suspect her experiences. This picture book is also considered a predictable book, because there is one verse that is repeated. Enjoy this delightful lighthearted story and see if you can relate to it or to other books that you have read.

Welcome to the realm of the most intriguing denizens of Ravenloft - the Vistani, the dream walkers, the gypsies of the mists... this sourcebook (for all levels) reveals their secrets, beliefs, customs, magic, and even (agh!) full materials on designing Vistani PCs, if your sanity can take it. A wonderful sourcebook that is easily converted to any AD&D world, adding a powerful, fascinating new race to supplement any campaign.

This is a must have book if your're interested in using Ravenloft's most colourful people. The vistani are the gypsy people for Ravenloft, and this book details how to use them: both as a DM and as a Player (yes, you can use a vistana as a PC... if your DM's up to it)

The format of this book is straight forward, and easy to comprehend. Unfortunately, the beginning of many chapters proved to be long and tedious before actually getting into the workings of government. Although the examples were necessary to illustrate daily workings of government, they could have been cut back.