Review by Jeorge
When I was in high school, back in the eighties, the big event each year for math students (aside from the ARML competition) was the AHSME, or American High School Mathematics Examination.

Since then the competition has undergone some changes, including a change of name; it is now called the American Mathematics Competition, or AMC.

Another change is that the competition now permits the use of calculators (as of 1994).

Thus, the types of problems you will find in the 1995 - 2000 Contest Problem Book are different from previous years' books, since now problems must be written in such a way that they do not become trivial when approached with a calculator.

The forward of the book gives an example of a problem which, when tackled with a graphing calculator, appears at a glance to have one solution, but when approached by more "conventional" means, gives a different solution. Rating by Jeorge

Review by Jeorge
Because I run weekly puzzles atThe BrainFood Page, I'm always looking for new word tricks and word games to give me ideas for new puzzles.

So when I saw Richard Lederer's "Circus Of Words" on sale for under $5.00 at a local book store, I grabbed it.

I'm glad I did, because it gave me all kinds of ideas for new puzzles. If you enjoy the strange tricks played by the English language, you'll enjoy this book.

But beware: even though the cover of the book looks like it was designed for children, I have my doubts that the majority of children will really enjoy it. Somehow Lederer's style of writing strikes me as not really being geared toward children. Rating by Jeorge

Review by Jeorge
I've only played with this product briefly, but I loved it enough that one Christmas I built a software version of it to give my nephews for Christmas. You know it's gotta be good, for me to take the time to do that! Rating by Jeorge

Review by Jeorge
Every thinking person should read this...and non-thinking people should read it too, because it might get you started thinking!

This book completely changed the way I look at television, print media, the news, politics, and every other aspect of life where the entertainment industry has infiltrated our lives.

I find myself thinking "What would Neil Postman have to say about this?" at odd times, and in different circumstances.

In fact, just a couple weeks ago a friend was commenting to me that all the news programs run exactly the same news stories, in exactly the same order, and he wondered why that was.

My response was: "Neil Postman would say that it's because they all know which stories will market well." Rating by Jeorge

Review by Jeorge
When I was in college, I took a Math History course, and the textbook we used was Howard Eves' An Introduction To The History Of Mathematics. The author was a former professor at the university I attended, and a friend of the professor teaching the course, so I initially assumed that this was another case of "professorial vanity" (of which there is always a great deal in university circles!)

It wasn't until much later that I discovered this is a highly respected work on the history of mathematics not just at my Alma Mater, but all over the world.

But I learned to love this textbook even before I discovered that it was well loved by others. My professor spoke with a very thick accent (I think he was Spanish), and was very difficult to understand, so I had to rely on Eves' book more heavily than any other textbook I had ever used. The text contains not just the history of the development of mathematics, but interesting trivia and theorems as well. Rating by Jeorge

Review by Jeorge
From time to time I am hired to write or proofread competition math problems for various math competition leagues (I'm currently in the midst of writing 9 competitions, 11 problems each), so I need to keep some math problem books around, partly to keep my math brain active and partly for inspiration.

Recently I picked up some books of math problems, and found one of them to be quite valuable: The Contest Problem Book V

The Contest Problem Book V contains problems from the AHSME (American High School Mathematics Examination) and the AIME (American Invitational Mathematics Examination) from the years 1983 to 1988. I was in high school during those years, so as I look at both the AHSME and AIME problems, I find myself thinking: I remember doing those competitions! Rating by Jeorge

Review by Jeorge
Lloyd King's puzzle book: Amazing "aha!" Puzzles. 317 lateral thinking ("outside the box") puzzles that you've never seen before.

When I first saw the description of the book Amazing "aha!" Puzzles by Lloyd King, the phrase that caught my eye was "brand new lateral puzzles". I was skeptical. After reading a plethora of Lateral Thinking Puzzle books, I had my doubts that Mr. King had over three hundred original, non-derivate puzzles. You know what I'm talking about; the original puzzle talks about blue cars and green cars, so someone changes to red and yellow bicycles, and then calls it "original". Like I said, I was skeptical.

But, as it turns out, I was pleasantly surprised. These are not derivative puzzles. These are not the same old puzzles wrapped in a different wrapper. There are over 300 puzzles, and so far (although I have not yet gone through all the puzzles) I do not find myself thinking "Oh yeah, I saw this puzzle in Book X." Rating by Jeorge

Review by Jeorge
The Eleventh Hour: A Curious Mystery is a clever mystery story about a group of animals having a party - only someone among them eats all the food. The question is, can you figure out who the culprit is? Not only do you have to pay attention to the rhyming storyline, but you also must watch for cleverly disguised and hidden visual clues within the beautiful drawings.

Even after you solve the mystery (or break open the seal in the back and read the solution), you'll still want to come back and read it again and again.

Is this a book children will enjoy? You bet they will! But is it a book exclusively for children? Not on your life! This is great for both children and adults. Rating by Jeorge

Review by Jeorge
Who would have guessed a simple dice game could be so much fun? Okay, it's actually not that simple...the rules will make your head spin. But that's part of the fun!

Train wrecks, wimpouts, clearing flashes, freight trains, last licks, and the infamous you may not want to but you must rule, all combine to make this a very silly but very fun dice game.

We used to play this game back when I was in college - lots of late nights hovering over a set of five silly dice. Back then the dice had flat surfaces, with the pips and pictures painted on the surface. Unfortunately, the paint wore off very quickly, forcing us to retire the game.

This new offering of the game includes dice with indentations for the pips and pictures. Thus, for those who think the magic is in the way you rub the dice between your hands, you don't have to worry about rubbing the pips off. A vast improvement in an already fun game! Rating by Jeorge

Review by Jeorge
I think what impressed me most about this was the fact that it was written over a hundred years ago (1884), and it's still used as a way of explaining dimensions and the possibility of four, five, or more dimensions.

Plus, the whole notion of a society (very Victorian in its outlook) living in two dimensions, with each person a geometric shape (everything from Triangles to people with so many sides that they are indistinguishable from circles) is a very clever way of approaching the subject. Rating by Jeorge