Read Pepperdine University's Graziado's Business Report review of 'Crash Course'

Back to all news and press

June 5, 2007

The review below was published originally at http://gbr.pepperdine.edu/072/books.html.

Crash Course in Accounting and Financial Statement Analysis
By Matan Feldman and Arkady Libman
John Wiley and Sons, 2nd edition, 2007

Recommended by Michael D. Kinsman, PhD, CPA, Professor of Finance and Accounting.

This book is exactly what its name implies: A course in Accounting and Financial Statement Analysis. But before you rush out to buy it, it is important to note what it is not, as well as what it is.

This book is not a complete course in accounting-if it were, its authors, Matan Feldman and Arkady Libman, would put a great number of accounting professors out of work. Instead, the authors have written a work that is superb for its intended audience-people who have not taken accounting before and people who need to brush up on the accounting that they had some time ago.

Most accountants will tell you that there is less to accounting than meets the eye. The problem most non-accountants have with that statement is that accountants are very good at hiding that "less" in words that are obscure to the average layman. Isn't a debit bad? After all, it is the opposite of credit, which is good, right? What's the difference between assets and equity, and what's this FASB thing that everybody gets so upset about? How do options work, and what are the differences between cash and accrual?

Most people-I exclude my students in finance from this group-do not need an extensive knowledge of accounting. They need some lingo. They need a framework. And that's what Crash Course provides. Admirably. I commend this book to you. It is filled with good examples, interesting information, and timely and informative mini-problems that help to coach you through the arcane subject of accounting in an easy-to-understand way.

In fact, the next reader of the book is going to be my soon-to-be-eighth-grade son, Nicholas. At the end of Crash Course he may not know all there is about accounting, but at least he will know enough!