The Calculus Lifesaver: All the Tools You Need to Excel at Calculus (Princeton Lifesaver Study Guides)

By Adrian Banner

• I purchased The Calculus Lifesaver book written by Adrian Banner when I discovered that my knowledge of Calculus was beginning to get a bit rusty and I wanted to clear up some of the mathematical cob webs in my head.
  
  I read Mr. Banner's book cover to cover in a little less than 4 weeks. The book has 30 chapters consisting of 702 pages and has 46 pages of appendices.
  
  Mr. Banner gives an in depth treatment of all the standard stuff like limits, differentiation, integration, Taylor and MacLaurin series, and he gives an overview of topics such as parametric equations, complex numbers, arc lengths, surface areas, and volumes and differential equations.
  
  All in all I feel that this book was well written, easy to read, and interesting. Mr. Banner's approach is quite different from the classical, almost stuff shirt approach that was typical of the math books that I used way back in my under grad days. He does interject some colorful language from time to time which initially surprised me, and then later on amused me, and always kept me interested.
  
  This is an excellent book for those students looking for a second source to review for an up coming midterm exam. Treatment of specific subject areas is clear, concise and can be read and understood in short order.
  
  This is an excellent book for people who need to quickly come back up to speed on subjects that may have become a bit clouded over the years.
  
  This also is an excellent book for people who are learning Calculus for the first time. If you are in the process of learning Calculus the key to really understanding the subject is to work countless problems until the mechanics, concepts, and procedures are firmly ingrained in your mind. For these people I strongly recommend a companion text called "The Humongous Book of Calculus Problems" by W. Michael Kelly. A serious student could learn the concepts and procedures from Mr. Banner's book and then work many of the one thousand problems provided in Mr. Kelly's book to gain proficiency.

• I was a math/chemistry major and have a PhD in Biochemistry. I was looking for a review book to teach my son after being away from Calculus for 30 years. This is the Best Calculus book - Ever!! It is written in plain English as if you had your own personal tutor. There are many many examples of problems solved for you with step by step explanation and some real world examples. This book is must if you are taking Calculus for the first time or reviewing it. This book is Awesome!
  
  It does contain the most thorough and understandable explanations that I have seen to date.