Review of Intermediate Accounting, Update, Volume 1 (Hardcover)

Love the book...Great buy except that I thought I was buying the complete version but ended up only getting the 1st volume. Be careful to read the complete description.



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Review of Valuation of Intellectual Property and Intangible Assets, 3rd Edition (Hardcover)

I paid Amazon about $250.00 for this book six months ago and it is worth every penny.I am not a CPA so I can only read 30 - 40 pages at a time and then my head starts swimming.

However, I am a senior manager at a company whose value is almost 100% dependant on our intellectual property and intangible assets and this book has been my guide in setting policy.I take it with me on every plane flight (about every two weeks) and re-read a section.



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Review of Fraud Examination and Prevention (Hardcover)

I have read a number of books on fraud and this is surprisingly the best that I have read. I have selected and started reading this book like any others and was shocked by the conciseness, focus and intensity that Mr. Albrecht has put into it.

In this book, Mr. Albrecht has selflessly shared many real life examples that help non-professional appreciate and understand the points that he was bringing across.

A systematic book that you will not regret owning. I have borrowed it from the library and now is considering getting one after finishing the book!

Hope more readers will be blessed when they come across this book!



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Review of Accounting (Hardcover)

When I said incomplete, It's means the book was supposed to include a cd (chapter exercises, etc.). I didn't receive it.



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Review of Intermediate Accounting (Hardcover)

Except for having to buy it new, there are reasons to like the Kieso series including this 13th edition of Intermediate Accounting, which is really Financial Accounting II. These authors have done everything to make the subject progressively more accessible in each edition.I know as I suffered through the courses once too.I have a master's in accounting and am a CPA.It's surprising how many accounting texts assume the student has certain prerequisite skills and knowledge and equally surprising how so many accounting professors want to lecture on what enhances their knowledge base instead of teaching to the student.The Kieso books are really teaching books.I buy used recent editions for myself just for reference since they're so well done and so cheap.Not all CPAs do that but I practice financial accounting.

You'll be lucky if the professor is permissive enough to go with an older series because most students quickly sell these books once the course is over, so used editions are MUCH cheaper.But most professors insist on the most recent edition.I think they're motivated because their authority rests on being up to date.In this 13th edition, there's a big emphasis on International Accounting Standards, and you can be sure the professors want to bone up on this themselves.The financial meltdown has discredited the whole U.S. financial complex, and one result is that the pull is now stronger toward international accounting standards rather than U.S. GAAP.Also, the authors anticipate that everyone wants to use the cheaper previous edition, so they always change the end of chapter problems.The publisher also provides the professors with additional materials including exam materials, so there's always the incentive for the professor to use the latest edition and claim that it's the only acceptable one due to the end of chapter problems.

These are really heavy books - no fun to carry around.The book weighs 6.2 pounds.That's ridiculous.1,440 pages and you darn well have to know this material.This gives a hint why so many people, despite knowing that good accountants tend to stay employed in a recession, won't even consider this route.But at least the Kieso books, other than their workbooks, are hardcover with large dimensions and quality paper and binding.Nothing is worse than using a thick softcover text that feels like a phone book.Unfortunately they're expensive new, and you might one day be buying the 18th edition used for a fraction of this price.

Note, if you need the WileyPlus access code, it is NOT included with this book.If your professor makes you get the code, you've got to spend even more money.You get this access code at the Wileyplus website. A kind student emailed me that the code now costs $83.50 at the site.Wiley also puts in place separate deals with some but not all college bookstores, although then the prices vary a lot at the college bookstore level.Sometimes, depending on how the professor intends to use the WileyPlus resource, you might just ask the professor and get the code, but those cases are rare.

A word of caution and encouragement: This Intermediate Accounting course along with the first one, Financial Accounting, are the two that were traditionally used to weed out students from becoming accounting majors.You've got to spend a lot more time on this course than you usually would for a typical course.Good luck - I wish you the best!



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Review of Interest Rate, Term Structure, and Valuation Modeling (Hardcover)

I was pleasantly surprised by the clarity of the writing by most of the authors in this book.As its title suggests, this book has a solid discussion of interest rate models, term structure, and different valuation models for interest rates.After reading this book, you should become familiar with the various interest rate models, such as Cox-Ingersoll-Ross and Health-Jarrow-Morton.The book goes through many topics (e.g., modeling, yield curves, term structure, valuation, path dependency, etc.) with sufficient depth and it provides many examples that are relatively easy to follow.

In addition, the discussion of interest rate factor models is also interesting, and I like the part where they relate some of the factor models for interest rates to their counterparts in equities (as factor models for equities are much more common, e.g. APT, CAPM).Moreover, modeling of interest rates is an interesting subject, although it can get quite complex.I think this book handles it pretty well.There is a discussion of the use of the lattice method (i.e., trees) and Monte Carlo simulation.There is also an excellent discussion of the significance of mean reversion.

However, because the chapters of this book are written by different authors, there are two major issues that I find quite annoying.First, the discussion in some chapters gets repeated in other chapters, thereby wasting time and space (i.e., paper).It is highly annoying to read a discussion of interest rate models in multiple chapters, but I guess on the bright side it helps you remember the models.Second, the writing styles can vary substantially.There are some chapters that are written really well, while other chapters are just the opposite.In particular, I didn't like the chapter on Measuring the Plausibility of Interest Rate Shocks.



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