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

I found out about this book by watching Adrian Banner's online lectures. The lectures are a wonder. Exceptionally easy to follow; assume little prior knowledge; do not miss out crucial steps that would be obvious to some (or many?) but are not obvious to me. The book is just the same and I'm very impressed. Like so many other physics and maths books, reading it on the Kindle Fire HDX is a miserable experience. Better than some but the problem is the same: Equations are tiny and do not zoom with the text. Amazon is very negligent in not providing a decent reader for this tablet. The iPad one is fine. Also fine on the PC. But not on the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9. (A Kindle for %^&* sake) Anyway - I always try to get this comment in and I would not want to mark the book down. I also happen to know that authors are just as frustrated as I by the obduracy of Amazon in respect of its arcane (I'm told) publishing process.

The best mathematics textbook I have ever read. EVERYTHING in the book is explained super clearly. I would recommend this book to anyone who wishes to master calculus with joy.

I used to use calculus when carrying out design analyses years ago . Just for something to do , I thought I would brush-up on this form of mathematics and I came across this book . It had good reports , so I thought I would buy a copy . Well ,the text is quite comical in places and had me laughing . But , on the serious side , it gets to grips with the methodology and is quite lucid in its approach . I say " it " , but I refer to the author , who knows his stuff . Yes , a very good book , even though I am only part-way through it .

An absolute work of art. I judge textbooks based on the number of 'eureka' moments I experience (i.e. "Wow! I get it!") and The Calculus Lifesaver is full of them. The worked examples are clear and understandable, leaving you better informed than you thought possible after every chapter.

Clear and concise. Online videos to complement the book. Well worth owning.

Simply put, I love this book. I love mathematics and some concepts I found difficult to understand but this book absolutely cleared up any confusion. Ive had this book for a few years now and I read it constantly, cover to cover. Plus the online videos by the author are a gem. Thank you.

If you’re looking to understand where a specific theorem comes from, the book explains it all! Detailed, comprehensive, and mathematical! I wish more maths books are like this.

by far the best book on calculus that I have ever read. Clear, easy to understand, nothing is given for granted but everything is explained thoroughly. Friendly style, you really start loving mathematics!

It's really a life saver in calculus. I am reading calculus after 20 years completing my Degree. The author has gone step by step, brushing up basics of functions, trignometry, intro to limits and then how to differentiate, etc. Really good book, worth buying.

One of te best books of calculus I've seen. After it, the next one should be "Calculus" writen by Kline. With both, a strong fundamental foundation will have been built

Purchased this from Amazon in Mar 2025. Excellent book on Calculus. However the print quality from the publisher leaves much to be desired. Multiple pages in the first 4 chapters contain very faint printing like the printer was running out of ink, as well as many pages containing smudged printing. The rest of the book was ok but overall the print was too light for my liking. Felt like the publisher was trying to save ink. Even though the book was fairly priced, it is not an excuse for such terrible printing. Really ruins the reading experience.

Last fall my son enrolled in Calculus 1 as a college freshman. I thought that, having taken calculus 40 years ago, it might be an interesting time for me to try a refresher -- so we agreed to put our heads together now and then. Since the textbook (Stewart) was none too friendly, we soon started assembling background materials to help us along. We bought several books, including this one; "How to Ace Calculus: The Streetwise Guide" by Adams, Thompson and Hass; and "The Humongous Book of Calculus Problems" by Kelley. In addition, we picked up a copy of "The Calculus 1 & 2 Tutor" DVD by Jason Gibson, and checked out several of the many tutorials on YouTube. Now that the semester is over, I would say that Banner's book was the most thorough yet friendly treatment of calculus. If you are motivated to learn calculus really well, and have the time to put into it, his book does a vastly better job than most textbooks in explaining the material in an accessible way. At more than 700 pages, however, it is not a quick read. If you're looking for quick help here and there on tougher topics, "How to Ace Calculus" or the YouTube videos provide a faster fix. A number of other reviews here mention that the book does not provide much in the way of practice problems, and recommend "The Humongous Book" for that. To be honest we felt we were exposed to plenty of problems in my son's course textbook, the various videos, etc., and did not end up consulting "Humongous" extensively during the semester. But this may be an area in which everyone's mileage may vary. Also, although we like Banner's book quite a lot, we found the technical quality of his online videos made them hard to watch. They were basically produced by setting up a camera in a classroom, and both the video and audio quality were problematic. Even so, as mentioned Banner's book is the most comprehensive treatment of calculus we found at a reasonably accessible level -- and if you are committed to mastering the subject, I'd recommend it highly. I wish I had something like it when I went through calculus for the first time four decades ago (in a pre-calculator era, slide rules and printed log tables in hand ...)

This book is great. I find it really helpful in understanding Calculus topics.