Best Selling Books by Andrew Davidson

A New York Times Bestseller The Gargoyle: the mesmerizing story of one man''s descent into personal hell and his quest for salvation. On a dark road in the middle of the night, a car plunges into a ravine. The driver survives the crash, but his injuries confine him to a hospital burn unit. There the mysterious Marianne Engel, a sculptress of grotesques, enters his life. She insists they were lovers in medieval Germany, when he was a mercenary and she was a scribe in the monastery of Engelthal. As she spins the story of their past lives together, the man''s disbelief falters; soon, even the impossible can no longer be dismissed.

"This book fills a very important gap in the mindset of the bond structurer and the investor. Often, the two disciplines approach their tasks ignorant of the perspectives of the other side. But successful structuring requires providing the best value to investors in order to compete, and investors who don’t fully understand structuring will not remain investors for long. Highly recommended!" —Bennett W. Golub, Managing Director, BlackRock, Inc. "An excellent primer on asset securitization, clearly written in plain English and with straightforward mathematical expressions. This book is suitable for both business school students and structured finance market practitioners." —Joseph Hu, PhD, Managing Director, Structured Finance Ratings, Standard & Poor’s "In their new work Securitization: Structuring and Investment Analysis, Andrew Davidson et al. reinforce their preeminence in the alchemy of mortgage securitization. Anyone involved in mortgages neglects Andy’s work at his peril." —Richard T. Pratt, Chairman, Richard T. Pratt Associates; Former Chairman, Merrill Lynch Mortgage Corporation "This book provides an insightful and accessible exploration of securitized real estate markets. As such, it provides a valuable service to those active and interested in these burgeoning markets. The authors have done a wonderful job of gracefully integrating a vast and important subject matter. Accordingly, this book also makes for an excellent textbook for those universities offering one or more courses in this rapidly growing field." —Joseph L. Pagliari, Jr., Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

The spread of modernity throughout the non-Western world has had transformative effects not only on governments and economies but on the lives of individuals as well. The constraints and opportunities of modernization inevitably lead to the breakdown and supplanting of older social relations and livelihoods. In this volume Andrew P. Davidson examines the Nuba Mountain region of western Sudan to show how individuals and families struggle to maintain or expand their well-being in the face of continuous uncertainty, when control of their destinies is increasingly slipping out of the comforting confines of the village.As in many third world regions, changes in agriculture and market activity have occurred in the Nuba mountains in a far more compressed tune frame than in Europe. Davidson charts the social effects of the rationalization process by concentrating on the household as a mediating structure between the individual and the larger society. In his analysis the livelihood strategies of households act as a microcosm for the unevenness of development that is characteristic of modernizing economies. Davidson offers a comparative and historical examination of economic life in three villages in order to better understand the capacities and limitations that ultimately condition what people can and cannot do. He shows how the older lineage system based on communalism, kinship, and age-based hierarchy is being displaced by new forces of social organization and individual orientation which have eroded village cohesion and left the Nuba vulnerable to the Islamic-dominated government in Khartoum and the ravages of the continuing Sudanese civil war.In its combination of empirical analysis, ethnographic fieldwork, and theoretical inquiry In the Shadow of History reconceptualizes development in such a way that the dynamics of historical transformation are made clear. This study hi the classic anthropological tradition will be a valuable resource for anthropologists, economists, historians, and Africa area specialists.

Mortgage-backed securities (MBS) are among the most complex of all financial instruments. Analysis of MBS requires blending empirical analysis of borrower behavior with the mathematical modeling of interest rates and home prices. Over the past 25 years, Andrew Davidson and Alexander Levin have been at the leading edge of MBS valuation and risk analysis. Mortgage Valuation Models: Embedded Options, Risk, and Uncertainty contains a detailed description of the sophisticated theories and advanced methods that the authors employ in real-world analyses of mortgage-backed securities. Issues such as complexity, borrower options, uncertainty, and model risk play a central role in the authors'' approach to the valuation of MBS. The coverage spans the range of mortgage products from loans and TBA (to-be-announced) pass-through securities to subordinate tranches of subprime-mortgage securitizations. With reference to the classical CAPM and APT, the book advocates extending the concept of risk-neutrality to modeling home prices and borrower options, well beyond interest rates. It describes valuation methods for both agency and non-agency MBS including pricing new loans; approaches to prudent risk measurement, ranking, and decomposition; and methods for modeling prepayments and defaults of borrowers. The authors also reveal quantitative causes of the 2007-09 financial crisis and provide insight into the future of the U.S. housing finance system and mortgage modeling as this field continues to evolve. This book will serve as a foundation for the future development of models for mortgage-backed securities.

This title was first published in 2003. he public sector plays a dominant international role in the provision of agricultural extension and services. This role has been the subject of much debate. Some argue for extension''s privatization, claiming that a market driven system provides the most rational and efficient means of information delivery. Based on extensive empirical research from the Punjab (Pakistan), this volume examines the comparative effectiveness of public and private extension services from the perspective of farmers. It also focuses on information from extension agents about their respective organizations and work environments. In so doing, the book expands and elaborates on the practical considerations of privatization and information delivery. It then broadens out into a discussion of alternative means of extension delivery, focusing on participatory approaches, education theory and pluralism.

The extraordinary true story of a young medical officer’s time in the trenches of the First World War from 1914-15, as seen through through the lens of his camera. Written by Fred’s grandson, Andrew Davidson, and interweaving contemporary narrative with 250 captivating, previously unknown photographs taken at the front, it is a must-have for history and photography enthusiasts alike. Fred’s War tells the extraordinary story of the 1st Cameronians, who achieved notoriety for selling the Great War’s earliest front line photographs, and Fred Davidson, their 25-year-old medical officer, one of the first doctors to win the Military Cross. His pictures are seen here for the first time, alongside those taken by his friend Lieutenant Robert Money and fellow officers. Using a unique approach blending 250 original photographs with contemporary narrative, the author, Fred’s grandson, pieces together the story behind the pictures that have passed through his family for three generations: describing the men who fought with Davidson, the conditions they served in, the battles they saw and the horrors they witnessed. From the parade ground at Glasgow’s Maryhill to the brothels of Armentieres, the book offers an unusually intimate portrait of life among a band of brothers – the same men who later proudly dubbed themselves ‘Old Contemptibles’.

Andrew Davidson goes behind the scenes at Britain''s largest hospital trust and describes a year in the life of a hospital through the stories of those who work there and those who pass through. St Thomas'' Hospital, opposite the Houses of Parliament, is one of the most famous centres of medical excellence in the world. For the past two years it has been the subject of bitter political controversy over the decision to amalgamate it with its rival, Guy''s. From the man who runs the Mortuary to the Chief Executive who has ''finished'' an affair with the head of PR - but who has just born his child - to the patients with Multi Drug Resistant Infection (an extremely scary potential by-product of going into hospital) and those who come into Casualty to have frozen fish removed from unlikely places - this is the most vividly realised book that has ever emerged from a modern hospital. It reveals the choices that doctors, nurses, administrators and patients must make each day - decisions that are often literally a matter of life and death.

Introduces insects, looking at bees, ants, grasshoppers, fireflies, dragonflies, and beetles. Suggested level: junior.

Offers advice on prioritizing day-to-day career and family demands, suggests simple ways to find more time during the day, and discusses how to keep things in perspective and live in real time.

Introductory Hebrew Grammar - Hebrew syntax is an unchanged, high-quality reprint of the original edition of 1896. Hansebooks is editor of the literature on different topic areas such as research and science, travel and expeditions, cooking and nutrition, medicine, and other genres. As a publisher we focus on the preservation of historical literature. Many works of historical writers and scientists are available today as antiques only. Hansebooks newly publishes these books and contributes to the preservation of literature which has become rare and historical knowledge for the future.

In this account, the author charts the story of the furore over Mrs Thatcher''s plans to auction off the 16 licences, how the industry turned the tables and the battles that took place behind closed doors as contenders bid nearly £700 million for the stations.

Skáldsagan Steindrekinn (e. The Gargoyle, 2008) er eftir Andrew Davidsson og birtist hér í íslenskri þýðingu Sölva Björns Sigurðssonar. Á myrkum vegi um miðja nótt hrapar bifreið í gljúfur. Illa brenndur sleppur ökumaðurinn lifandi frá slysinu. Hann þolir óbærilegar kvalir og sársaukafulla meðferð á sjúkrahúsinu í þeirri einu von að verða nægilega hraustur til að fremja sjálfsmorð. Þá birtist hin leyndardómsfulla Marianne Engel myndhöggvari. Hún fullyrðir að þau séu elskendur frá fyrra lífi, í Þýskalandi á miðöldum. Hann málaliði og leiguþý og hún skrifari og nunna í klaustrinu Engelthal. Marianne segir ævintýraríkar sögur frá fyrra lífi þeirra, m.a. frá Íslandi og Japan. Því meira sem þær fléttast saman, sljóvgast ruddaskapur hans og vantrú – brátt neyðist hann til að trúa hinu ótrúlega.

A contemporary cynic crashes his car into a ravine and suffers horrible burns over much of his body. As he recovers in a burn ward, he awaits the day when he can leave the hospital and commit carefully planned suicide--for he is now a monster in appearance as well as in soul. Then a beautiful and compelling, but clearly unhinged, sculptress of gargoyles by the name of Marianne Engel appears at the foot of his bed and tells him that they were once lovers in medieval Germany.