Physical Chemistry: Understanding Our Chemical World
by Paul M. S. Monk

Understanding Physical Chemistry is a gentle introduction to the principles and applications of physical chemistry. The book aims to introduce the concepts and theories in a structured manner through a wide range of carefully chosen examples and case studies drawn from everyday life. These real-life examples and applications are presented first, with any necessary chemical and mathematical theory discussed afterwards. This makes the book extremely accessible and directly relevant to the reader.
Aimed at undergraduate students taking a first course in physical chemistry, this book offers an accessible applications/examples led approach to enhance understanding and encourage and inspire the reader to learn more about the subject.

* A comprehensive introduction to physical chemistry starting from first principles.
* Carefully structured into short, self-contained chapters.
* Introduces examples and applications first, followed by the necessary chemical theory.

The academic job search handbook
(3ed., U. Pennsylvania, 2001)

Review:

Nice, generic handbook

I bought this book at the late stages of my job hunting process, days before my first, phone interview. Therefore, I did not read the first half of the book which has to do with planning the job search and searching (assisted with sample vitas, cover letters, etc. which cover half of this book's pages). My focus was in the interviewing, and later on in the negotiating phases. In that respect, I think that this book is what its title implies: a handbook giving generic guidelines to most of the situtations one might face while interviewing ( covering off-site, conference, phone, on-campus interviews), including a list of possible questions that might be asked. It gives you advise on how to prepare for each type of interview, what to expect, what to wear etc. in a brief manner, something that was very useful for my case, since I had only a few days to prepare for my first, phone interview. I also found some useful points in the "negotiating the job" section. Another aspect I liked about this book was that it covered specific situations such as dual-carrer couples, foreign nationals seeking US employment, etc. The last part of this book covers the "after you take the job" phase, which I plan to read.

Overall, this is a nice handbook, which outlines the basics, but doesn't get into much detail. I had to buy another book and combine information of both to better prepare for my job interviews. Half of the book is covered by sample materials, which I found useless, but given its low price, I would recommend it to anyone seeking for an academic job, as a start-up, quick reference guide, or a complementary book to another, more detailed one.

 

This book helped me score a 5.5 out of 6 on the writing portion. When I first began studying fot the GRE, I was intimidated by all the elements of the writing section: a vast pool of vague topics, impossible time limits, and my own cluttered opinions. I found Peterson's guide to be a practical refresher on rhetoric, fine tuned for maximum performance on the 45 minute and 30 minute essays.

My first few practice essays were rushed and unclear. On the day of the exam, I found myself with EXTRA time to edit and even add an extra paragraph. This could not have happened without Peterson.

An immensely popular course, fully updated to meet the requirements of the FCE exam. It can be used as a thorough preparation course for the revised First Certificate exam. To tell you the truth I love using it because of the workbook’s excellent taskmaterial and the great listening tasks. Student's book is from a photocopy, but quite OK quality.
It has 20 motivating, theme-based units and very clear format for ease of use. Exam preparation is dealt with progressively, starting with simpler versions of the tasks to build confidence. It concentrates on thorough development of all four skills. Rule-finding approach to grammar, cross-referenced to a comprehensive Grammar Summary at the back of the book. Includes substantial vocabulary work and rigorous writing syllabus with models and practice for different task types. Extensive training for the full range of speaking tasks in Paper 5.

Student's book + Teacher's book + Workbook + Taperips