This is a delightful book aimed at the non-specialist user of optimization software. The selection of topics is appropriate, and wide enough to provide the novice reader with a broad understanding of the field. It is just deep enough so that the reader is able to understand how to effectively select and use existing software, but not so deep that a reader could implement good optimization software. While I can not recommend this work for specialists or even perhaps for mathematicians, I can whole heartily suggest this text for the novice to optimization or to the non-specialist practitioner. In fact, for the non-specialist practitioner, this may be one of the best books available today.
