A Modern Approach to Probability Theory (Probability and Its Applications)

Rating:
Summary: very disappointed
Review: I must admist I expected more from this book. The material covered is great, and so is the presentation. What is anoying, is that the authors do not prove half of the theorems and propositions. The proofs they provide (when they provide them) are great, but many people, who need to know the why's and how's of the theory, will have a hard time (unless they had seen this material before). So, it's a great reference book, but not a great learning tool.

Rating:
Summary: Finally, a readable one!
Review: Targeted clientele: Grad students doing research in the engineering or applied sciences who discover that they need to know detailed probability and measure theory - at an intuitive yet rigorous depth which books like Papoulis' or Stark/Woods' just cannot provide.

Pros: A very readable book, unlike most of the other books on this subject, which are either too concise and dense and written primarily for mathematicians, or not detailed enough to show all the nuances of the topic. The book has a good set of examples, and web-based solutions to some of the problems. It also does not ignore routine undergrad-type computational problems to highlight practical aspects of the subject. The book is encyclopedic in nature (which is good and bad depending on what your objectives are) and covers some cutting-edge topics. Very good for self-study. If you have some time, it will 'hand-hold' your way to a solid understanding of the subject.

Cons: The book is encyclopedic (see above). Unlike Resnick's text which is very focused and designed to give you the minimum tools necessary to quickly come up to speed, this text has a lot of detail which is not ideal if you need to know the topics NOW. It is designed for a three quarter sequence. The measure theory section is nicely presented, but forces the readers to prove many of the results as exercises. This may foster better learning but, once again, if you're in a hurry.....Lacks a chapter ending set of comprehensive problems which tests the overall understanding of the material in the chapter (since the problem sets immediately follow the individual sections and are geared only for that specific section).

Rating:
Summary: No thanks
Review: This book is like a cake with bad frosting. You really want to eat the cake but the frosting just is not very good, so hence eating the cake kinda sucks. I got this book for a 1 semester course in probabilistic snooch smacking. Looks like the odds were against me. I don't blame Bert, I blame Lawrence.