Book Review Column (a bit late)

I try to post my book review column when it comes out but I am behind on that. This is the one that came out a few months ago.  The column is here though I have removed the list of books I want reviewed since it is out of date. The current list of books I need reviewed is here.  Advice for reviewers is here.  The LaTeX template for reviews is here.

The books reviewed in the column are:

1. A Concise Introduction to Data Compression by David Salomon.  This book covers different aspects of data communications with a main focus on source coding, more commonly known as data compression.  We can view source coding as lossless compression, where the goal is to find a bijective function that when fed a bitstream, also known as a message, outputs a shorter bitstream.
   
2. Parallel Algorithms by  Henri Casanova, Arnaud Legrand, and Yves Robert.  This book provides the reader with an advanced introduction into the principles of Parallel computing.  The book is targeted at advanced readers -- graduate students and post-graduate researchers with a strong computational background -- and represents a good resource both in support of a graduate course in parallel algorithms, and for self-guided learning.
   
3. Polynomia And Related Realms by Dan Kalman.  This book is about polynomials. Topics include Horners rule, root finding (e.g., the cubic equation) and max-min problems. There is also some history in the book so you'll know where the ideas come from.  The MAA awarded this book a Beckenback Prize at the January meetings.  Details are posted here
   
4. Biscuits of Number Theory Edited by  Arthur T. Benjamin and Ezra Brown.  The authors themselves give the best description of the book: an assortment of articles and notes on number theory, where each item is not too big, easily digested, and makes you feel all warm and fuzzy when you're through.
   
5. Combinatorial Geometry and Its Algorithmic Applications: The Alcal\'a Lectures by Janos Pach and Micha Sharir.  Combinatorial Geometry is the study of points, lines, and planes.  This material often has algorithmic applications; however, unlike Computational Geometry, this is not the original motivation. This book explores the aspects of combinatorial geometry that have applications to algorithms.
   
6. Handbook of Large-Scale Random Networks Edited by Bela Bollobas, Robert Kozma and Deszo Miklos.  Networks can often be modeled as a random graph.  The research here is truly interdisciplinary.  This handbook is an outcome of a U.S.-Hungarian workshop on complex networks held at the R\'{e}nyi Istitute in Budapest in 2006.  According to its editors, its purpose  is to provide a significant update and extension beyond the materials presented in the ''Handbook of Graphs and Networks published in 2003 by Wiley
   
7. Algorithms and Theory of Computation Handbook Edited by : Mikhail J. Atallah and Marina Blanton.  This is a pair of volumes that cover many topics of interest to TCS research.  Volume I is mostly algorithms and Volume II has some real applications.
   
8. Primality testing and integer factorization in public key cryptography by Song Y. Yan.  This book covers number theory, some of which is quite advanced, and how it interacts with modern cryptography.
   
9. Process Algebra: Equational Theories of Communicating Processes by J. C. M. Baeten, T. Basten, and M. A. Reniers.  Process algebra is a method for specifying and verifying distributed and parallel systems that uses logic and universal algebra.  This book deals mostly with using Process Algebras for communicating processes.
   
10. Insider Threats in Cyber Security Edited by Probst, Hunker, Gollman, and Bishop.  This book seeks to educate the reader about the various aspects of insider threat and attempt to define/explain the problem (e.g., types of insiders, the nature of the problem and types of misuse), and ways in which end users and businesses can seek to mitigate some of these risks.  Other topics include fraud detection and insider threat mitigation technologies. Several challenges from both practitioner and research perspectives are discussed.