I was delighted when I learned in the fall of 2005 that Steve Cowin was working on a textbook in biomechanics. Steve and I were in the same department at Tulane University in the 1970s, and under his influence I learned the beauty and power of continuum mechanics as a means to better understand the musculoskeletal system. When I began teaching courses in biomechanics during that decade, it was natural to teach the material from a continuum mechanics persp- tive. Over the years I have used a variety of continuum mechanics texts, but, for the most part, I have had to find the biomedical examples I used directly from the research literature. I have now had a chance to review a draft of Tissue Mechanics by Cowin and Doty, and it exceeds my high expectations. The material includes a rigorous and comprehensive introd- tion to continuum mechanics oriented toward biomechanics. Indeed, all of the foundation t- ics for continuum models of biological materials are covered. This material is illustrated through applications to the hard and soft tissues of the human body. Steve Cowin is now one of the leading researchers in the mechanics of bone, so one would expect the chapters on bone tissue and bone tissue adaptation to be of a very high order. But the presentation on collagen and cartilage mechanics is also excellent. Their presentation of finite deformation mechanics and its application to tendons and ligaments is one of the most accessible in the literature.

This textbook provides a mathematical introduction to the theory of large-scale ocean circulation and is accessible for readers with an elementary knowledge of mathematics and physics, including continuum mechanics and solution methods for ordinary differential equations. The book consists of four parts. Part I (chapters 1 - 4) is a very brief introduction to ocean circulation and the mathematical formulation of the governing equations of ocean flows. In addition, concepts are introduced that are necessary to describe and understand large-scale ocean currents. In part II (chapters 5 - 10), the theory of mid-latitude wind-driven ocean circulation is presented. The consideration of model development includes a top-down approach and reduced equations are derived using asymptotics and scaling. Part III (chapters 11 - 12) focuses on the understanding of equatorial currents and El Nino. In the last part IV, chapters 13 - 16, the theory of planetary scale flows is presented, covering topics such as the thermocline problem, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the stability of the thermohaline circulation and the Arctic Ocean circulation. At the end of each chapter several exercises are formulated. Many of these are aimed to further develop methodological skills and to get familiar with the physical concepts. New material is introduced in only a few of these exercises. Fully worked out answers to all exercises can be downloaded from the book web site.

This successful textbook emphasizes the unified nature of all the disciplines of Fluid Mechanics as they emerge from the general principles of continuum mechanics. The different branches of Fluid Mechanics, always originating from simplifying assumptions, are developed according to the basic rule: from the general to the specific.