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List Price: £20.99
Our Price: £16.99
Author:
John Wood, Rosemary Emanuel
By Longman
 Generally excellent, 2007-02-10
I disagree with Ozzy's review, alas. Of all the textbooks I have used with (hundereds of) students, they almost unanimously consider this the best. It's far from perfect, but fills in many of the gaps left by more popular texts such as the Heinemann series (it also has far fewer mistakes and typos than the Heinemann books). The text is thorough and well spaced on the page, and the examples are generally well chosen. It might be nice to have a third colour in the text (red, perhaps, for the 2nd edition...?), but this is really a minor quibble.
I work on a 'rule of three' when teaching, meaning you generally need three textbooks for any given subject. We bounce between this and the Heinemann (which complement each other well) and then use the SMP books for the odd bit of clarity. (Although excellent on a few things, the SMP books really *do* need explanation by an experienced teacher.)
In short, I recommend this book (and its A2 companion) without hesitation. As mentioned, it's not perfect, but probably the best of the bunch, and works very well alongside the Heinemann. I look forward to Longman/Pearson knocking out some mechanics, statistics, and further maths texts of similar quality.
Mr M
List Price: £16.99
Our Price: £6.49
Author:
Stephen Hawking
By Penguin
Beautiful book, excellent value, 2005-11-30
The vast majority of this book is a collection of fascinating historically important mathematical papers, arranged in chronological order from Euclid to Turing. Each of the 17 mathematicians covered is given half-a-dozen pages of background, which is well written and informative, but it is the papers and essays themselves - which include commentary in the form of footnotes in very small print - that is the best part. These are generally in the public domain anyway, but the printing and layout is top-quality. Obviously much of the contents will only be understandable with some previous maths experience, and the papers don't necessarily build on each other, but if maths is at all interesting to you...This book could have been even better with the addition of an index and cross-references, but it is outstanding value and has such depth I have to give it five stars.
List Price: £32.99
Our Price: £29.78
Author:
Christine Dancey, John Reidy
By Prentice Hall
Fabulous as an introduction and update., 2008-11-04
It's been over ten years since I completed my PhD. (I used SPSS version 3 for DOS). Having returned to research, I required an updated version with the latest tests, and a relevant introductory guide.
The tutorial gave me a basic impression. The textbook which I bought left me baffled and slightly phobic. Then someone sent me this. From page 1, I understood the basic principles, was reminded of things I'd forgotten, and I could deal with the few equations in the text. It was also interesting, reduced my phobia and indeed, allowed me to go back and understand my first text.
In short, this is a terrific introduction to some very complicated concepts.
List Price: £9.95
Our Price: £6.02
Author:
Paul J. Nahin
By Princeton University Press
Eulogy, 1999-08-23
I rate this book as one of the three best general mathematical books that I have ever bought. Its style is clear and light and the scope of the mathematics is breathtaking; I learnt a great deal from it and saw explained some hard ideas in a very readable way. Not every question is answered but as the author says it isn't a text book. If you want to get into complex analysis and learn about its development and the geniuses who have been involved in it I can think of no better path to take-but you will need to work at some bits! The author avoids actually defining complex numbers in a rigorous way and I would have liked to have seen them defined somewhere as ordered pairs of reals with a reasonable definition of addition and a funny definition of multiplication, with i simply a change of notation. Not easy to fit into the historical development but worth an appendix.Buy the book. If you don't like it I reckon the problem's with you!
List Price: £55.00
Our Price: £51.61
Author:
Michael J. Crawley
By WileyBlackwell
Brilliant. This is it, 2007-05-04
Everything you wanted to know about R. Plus loads of things you didn't know you wanted to know, but are glad to know now you know.
List Price: £21.99
Our Price: £16.70
Author:
Steven Ten Have
By Financial Times/ Prentice Hall
Great for MBA students, 2005-10-27
I recommend this to any business student. Most of the main theoretical models are covered in enough depth to aid understanding and justify/otherwise inclusion in assignments.Well worth the money.
List Price: £8.99
Our Price: £4.37
Author:
Mark Ronan
By OUP Oxford
Aptly titled, 2008-01-01
Popularisations of mathematics are difficult to do well because you need to have a fair amount of the language of maths under your belt before you can follow the arguments. To that end, putting across the ideas in a non-technical manner needs a skill that few possess.
Ronan does a sparkling job here. The basic concepts of group theory are glossed over without going into tedious detail (and despite my affection for this particular branch of maths, I consider a lot of the detail *extremely* tedious), and once the story gets under way, the ideas are brought forward in a flowing, almost breathlessly excited, style which is infectious.
The author himself was involved in this stupendous quest of classification, so he knows what he's talking about.
One of the aspects of such a popular account is the bringing to life of the people behind the name, many of whom I'd never heard, quite a few of whom I'd already encountered in my travels through an undergrad degree in mathematics. Neither does the author shrink from confronting the political circumstances in which certain of the mathematicians were working, which adds a further dimension of interest to the tale.
The first thing one wants to do having read this book is to go and find out the mathematics behind it all. Be warned: it is difficult area to get to grips with. The basics are simple but the detail is diabolical.
List Price: £24.95
Our Price: £19.64
Author:
Michael J. Crawley
By WileyBlackwell
An excellent statistics book as well as an R book, 2006-07-31
I've been hoping to find a book that would allow me to recommend R for my undergraduate and postgraduate students. This is undoubtedly it. In short, not only is this a superb reference and introduction to the R software package, it is one of the most concise and clear introductions to statistics itself.
I can not recommend any statistics text more highly than this.
List Price: £27.50
Our Price: £26.12
Author:
A. J. Sadler, D. W. S. Thorning
By OUP Oxford
pure delight for pure mathematicians, 2008-08-01
I have recently used this book largely as a revision tool having completed A level Maths some two years before and must praise the succinct nature of the text. An early introductory chapter dealing with pre-A level material is essentially a condensed run through of the GCSE concepts most students will be comforatble with. The usual algebra, trig, series, geometry topics are presented establishing a firm basis for furhter study. The Calculus material is first class, encompassing 4 sections devoted to traditonal calculus moving on to intergration by parts and methods for the solution of differential equations. Finishing with a topic on Numerical methods, a must for those on further maths courses.
It is essntially a whole pure maths course in one volume, however due to the terseness of the material, using it as a tutorial will bring about frustration and some confusion. As a tool for revision and consolodation, it's first class and long may it reign as the king of my bookshelf.
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