The Reviews
Mathematics		Mathematical Symbols
For the sake of brevity, we will always represent this number 2.718281828459... by the letter e.        --Leonhard Euler, "Introductio in analysin infinitorum", (1748)

 
Textbook: Abstract Algebra: Theory and Applications

Author: Thomas W. Judson
Textbook URL: http://abstract.ups.edu/index.html
Reviewer: Linda Pedersen; Professor of Mathematics

*Average of all chapters. Maximum rating is 5.0

Reviewer's Comments This textbook is recommended for upper level undergraduates and advanced classes at the community college level. It is appropriate for math and science majors. This text is well designed, innovative in its approach, and very adaptable. In contrast to the usual approach, the author introduces examples first, followed by proofs and formal definitions. The exercises are well chosen to expand on the concepts, and answers are provided. Each chapter includes sections on history and applications of the theory. The author also introduces the excellent open source math software Sage. A strong math background is necessary to follow the examples, including some understanding of calculus, linear algebra and number theory.

 
Textbook: Applied Finite Mathematics

Author: Rupinder Sekhon
Textbook URL: http://cnx.org/content/col10613/latest/
Reviewer: Shane Tang, Math Instructor, Salt Lake Community College

*Average of all chapters. Maximum rating is 5.0

Reviewer's Comments I recommend this book for undergraduates. The content is especially useful for those in finance, probability statistics, and linear programming. The course material is consistent, and the use of money, coins, cards, and marbles make it relevant for all races and ethnicities.

 
Textbook: Collaborative Statistics

Authors: Barbara Illowsky, Ph.D., Susan Dean
Textbook URL: http://cnx.org/content/col10522/latest/
Reviewer: Dr. Warren Schonfeld
Accessibility Reviewed: Yes

*Average of all chapters. Maximum rating is 5.0.

Reviewer's Comments I recommend this book. Overall, the chapters are very readable and the material presented is consistent and appropriate for the course. A wide range of exercises introduces students of varied interests to a variety of applications.  Graphics are both clear and complete in both the on-line and printed versions of the text.

 
Textbook: Collaborative Statistics

Authors: Barbara Illowsky, Ph.D., Susan Dean
Textbook URL: http://cnx.org/content/col10522/latest/
Reviewer: Dr. Miriam Masullo, SUNY-Purchase College
Accessibility Reviewed: Yes

*Average of all chapters. Maximum rating is 5.0.

Reviewer's Comments I recommend this online book. It is definitely a good fit for any entry level statistics class in a four-year undergraduate program, either as backup review material or the primary reading material when combined with the courseware and teamwork. As a result of actually using this text for my class, I would not want to use any other book in a similar scenario.

 
Textbook: Collaborative Statistics: Custom Version, modified by R. Bloom (2008)

Author(s): Roberta Bloom, Susan Dean, Barbara Illowsky, Ph.D.
Textbook URL: http://cnx.org/content/col10617/latest/
Reviewer: Dr. Gary Popoli, Adjunct Professor of Psychology

*Average of all chapters. Maximum rating is 5.0.

Reviewer's Comments Overall, this is a very well written book. I think this is an excellent book that could be used as a primary textbook for community college students. Most of the chapters are very clear and concise, and the material is presented in a very unified and understanding manner. My only concern is that some chapters are too advanced for the novice statistics student. The computations are too complex without having the actual tables and seeing exactly how the authors arrived at their solutions.

 
Textbook: Dimensions (Geometry)

Author: Jos Leys, Etienne Ghys, Aurelien Alvarez
Textbook URL: http://www.dimensions-math.org/
Reviewer: Rob Knight, Math Professor, Evergreen Valley College

*Average of all chapters. Maximum rating is 5.0.

Reviewer's Comments I think this resource is extremely appropriate as an adjunct teaching aid for a course in geometry. It is a robust resource for the exploration of some very interesting topics in geometry. "Dimensions" is not actually a textbook but a multimedia presentation using two formats--a video format and a text that is presented in a web format, which is very readable.

 
Textbook: Elementary Algebra

Author: Denny Burzynski and Wade Ellis
Textbook URL: http://cnx.org/content/col10614/latest/
Reviewer: Rob Knight, Math Professor, Evergreen Valley College

*Average of all chapters. Maximum rating is 5.0.

Reviewer's Comments I recommend this book for courses in elementary algebra. The chapters are fairly clear and comprehensible, making them quite readable. The authors do a particularly nice job in presenting the concepts of terms and factors, as well as other important algebraic concepts. The PDF file should include links.

 
Textbook: A First Course in Linear Algebra (v2.21, March 10, 2010)

Author: Dr. Robert A. Beezer
Textbook URL: http://linear.ups.edu/
Reviewer: Dr. Ab Kader, part-time faculty, University of Phoenix and Notre Dame de Namur University

*Average of all chapters. Maximum rating is 5.0.

Reviewer's Comments I recommend this book for junior and senior level students with advanced mathematical maturity majoring in mathematics, physics, and all branches of engineering. The core of the text is excellent. The writing style is friendly and conversational. The common sense segues into abstract material which aids comprehension without sacrificing rigor. Archetypes are used throughout. The author did an outstanding job designing those. They serve as rich examples that guide students in investigating the major concepts of linear algebra. The core is modular and can be modified based on class level.

 
Textbook: Free College Algebra Book (2009)

Author: Carl Stitz, Jeff Zeager
Textbook URL: http://www.stitz-zeager.com/Free_College_Algebra_Book_Download.html
Reviewer: Dr. Ab Kader, part-time faculty, University of Phoenix and Notre Dame de Namur University

*Average of all chapters. Maximum rating is 5.0.

Reviewer's Comments This is an excellent book. I would definitely use this book to teach an undergraduate course. It is very well written, makes good use of exercises, and its use of visuals to bring the concepts to life is just magnificent. The PDF format is very readable. More than 40% of the exercises have solutions or hints given in Appendix A. Spot checks confirm the accuracy, appropriateness, and usefulness of the solutions and/or hints. The content gets more sophisticated and complex, so it should be geared towards college juniors or seniors.

 
Textbook: Fundamentals of Mathematics

Author: Denny Burzynski and Wade Ellis
Textbook URL: http://cnx.org/content/col10615/latest/
Reviewer: Rob Knight, Math Professor, Evergreen Valley College

*Average of all chapters. Maximum rating is 5.0.

Reviewer's Comments I would recommend this text for a basic math course for students moving on to elementary algebra. The information in most chapters is useful, very clear, and easily comprehended by most students. The reading level is appropriate to a first-year college student. While I recommend some organizational changes, something as simple as including ethnically diverse first names in word problems can indeed appeal to students of many races

 
Textbook: Getting Started With SPSS

Author: The Open University
Textbook URL: http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=3791
Reviewer: Gary Popoli, Ph.D.; Adjunct Professor of Psychology, Harford Community College
Review Date: February 2012

*Average of all chapters. Maximum rating is 5.0

Reviewer's Comments This textbook is recommended for first year Community College students, and is appropriate for Psychology and Behavioral Health majors. The book serves well as a brief introduction to SPSS, and is therefore an excellent supplementary text. It not only describes how to navigate in SPSS but it also some of the basic statistical analyses such as Descriptive Statistics, Independent t-tests, and Paired Sample t-tests. Its principal shortcoming is that the graphics are poor and difficult to see in some cases. Expanding the content to include some of the other statistical and graphical methods that one can perform with SPSS would be beneficial. Overall, it is a fine introduction.

 
Textbook: Intermediate Algebra (2007, Fall)

Author: College of the Redwoods Department of Mathematics
Textbook URL: http://msenux.redwoods.edu/IntAlgText/
Reviewer: Kara Monroe, Executive Director, Center for Instructional Technology, Ivy Tech Community College

*Average of all chapters. Maximum rating is 5.0.

Reviewer's Comments I recommend this book, but not as the primary text. The text is well written and mathematically accurate, and provides in-depth coverage of the essential materials of most intermediate algebra courses. I would suggest it as a reference/supplementary text in an online class.

 
Textbook: Intermediate Algebra

Author: Jon Blakely
Textbook URL: http://infinity.cos.edu/algebra/Blakely%20Text/index.html
Reviewer: Linda Pedersen, Professor of Mathematics
Review Date: February, 2012

*Average of all chapters. Maximum rating is 5.0

Reviewer's Comments This textbook is recommended for Community College level courses, and is appropriate for AA and BA majors. This simple, concise and well-written text could be used as a primary or supplemental course text. It may be too concise for some uses, but it succeeds in driving home the most important concepts. It begins with a review of key concepts from basic Algebra. It continues with explanations and several examples for each new concept and includes numerous practice exercises with answers. The definitions and explanations are very understandable. There are a few missing elements (e.g domains of composite functions, slant asymptotes and systems of linear inequalities) but this does not seriously limit its usefulness.

 
Textbook: Math In Society (2009)

Author: David Lippman
Textbook URL: http://dlippman.imathas.com/mathinsociety
Reviewer: Vicky Moyle, Instructor, General Studies, Mathematics, Bellingham Technical College

*Average of all chapters. Maximum rating is 5.0.

Reviewer's Comments I recommend this book for community or technical college, year 2, non-math, liberal arts majors. This text provides rich discussion of many topics where students may not consider mathematical thinking is involved. It is good primary text for various topics in mathematics and mathematical decision-making for novice and liberal arts students in community and technical colleges. The exercise sets contain "Skills", "Concepts", and "Exploration" divisions--which adds to clarity and comprehensibility.

 
Textbook: Online Statistics: An Interactive Multimedia Course of Study

Author: Lane, Lu, Peres, Zitek, and others
Textbook URL: http://onlinestatbook.com/
Reviewer: Rob Knight, Math Professor, Evergreen Valley College

*Average of all chapters. Maximum rating is 5.0.

Reviewer's Comments This textbook is excellent. I would recommend it for all college levels. It is very readable and functional. The PDF file for each chapter section is easily available, complete, and printable. There's a wealth of real life data and links to excellent data sources.

 
Textbook: Statistics

Author: Open Learning Initiative - Carnegie Mellon
Textbook URL: http://oli.web.cmu.edu/openlearning/forstudents/freecourses/statistics
Reviewer: Dr. Gary Popoli, Adjunct Professor of Psychology, Harford Community College

*Average of all chapters. Maximum rating is 5.0.

Reviewer's Comments This is an excellent book and I would recommend it for the community college student. I could see this as a primary textbook for a Statistics course or in a course that combines Statistics and Research Methods. However, I recommend that the author either condense the chapters on Probability or eliminate some of the modules that are a bit advanced. A statistics course at the community college level should focus more on samples, populations, ANOVAs, Z-scores, etc. and not so much on probability.

 
Textbook: Understanding Algebra

Author: James W. Brennan
Textbook URL: http://www.jamesbrennan.org/algebra/
Reviewer: Rob Knight, Math Professor, Evergreen Valley College

*Average of all chapters. Maximum rating is 5.0.

Reviewer's Comments I recommend this textbook for beginning algebra students. The author's writing style is very readable, making the chapters very clear and comprehensible. Content is very appropriate and useful. While I recommend some organizational and content changes in several of the chapters, I would also include text problem examples that use names of students from diverse ethnicities.

 
Textbook: Vector Calculus

Author: Michael Corral
Textbook URL: http://www.mecmath.net/
Reviewer: Dr. Ab Kader

*Average of all chapters. Maximum rating is 5.0.

Reviewer's Comments I would definitely use this excellent book to teach an undergraduate course. It is very well written, makes good use of exercises, and its use of visuals to bring the concepts to life is just magnificent. The PDF format is very readable. The author does a very good job of smoothly extending what the student already knows in one dimension to two and three-dimensional Euclidean spaces. The content gets more sophisticated and complex so it should be geared towards college juniors or seniors.