Algebra

Gelfand/Shen, Algebra
Gelfand/Glagoleva/Shnol, Functions and graphs
Gelfand/Glagoleva/Kirillov, The method of coordinates
These three little white books come from the Soviet correspondence school in mathematics, run
by I. M. Gelfand for interested people of all ages in the further reaches of the USSR. Rather than
trying to be artificially down-to-earth in the way Americans do, Gelfand simply assumes that
you can understand the mathematics as it's done (and avoids the formal complexities
mathematicians are inured to). YSP and SESAME give these out by the carload to their students,
who mostly love them. TMoC is notable for its intriguing four-axis scheme for making flat
graphs of R^4. Overall a fresh, inspiring look at topics we take for granted, and a good thing to
recommend to bright younger students or friends (or parents!)
Cohen, Precalculus with unit circle trigonometry
[RV] I used this book in high school and absolutely loved it. It's very skimpy on proofs, and
really should not be used for that sort of insight. However, in terms of understanding how to
apply various mathematical concepts it's wonderful. It has a large number of graphs, examples,
and easy reference tables. It covers all the algebra, trig, and cartesian geometry that any good
high school math sequence should deal with. I have used it for years as a reference book (e.g.,
what exactly is Cramer's rule again...) Solutions to a number of the problems are in the back, and
the problems are not entirely applications.

Geometry
Euclid, The elements
No, I'm not kidding. At first it's incredibly annoying and tedious to read, but after a while you get
into the flow of the language and the style. Euclid teaches you both the power of the modern
algebraic methods and the things that are hidden by our instinct to assign a number to a length.
Besides, there are wonderful tidbits here and there (did you know that Euclid invented the
Dedekind cut?). At least check it out once, to read his proof of the Pythagorean theorem. (Thanks
to Jonathan Beere ('95) for convincing me it was worthwhile.)
[PC] I have Volume I, and I have to admit I haven't really read it. I do think that I would benefit
if someone rammed some of it down my throat though, because nowadays we undergraduates are
trained to regard geometric as a strong pejorativethe very antithesis of rigor and proof.
Coxeter, Geometry revisited
This is a text on advanced Euclidean geometry, starting with the numberless classical
centers of a triangle and proceeding from there. Many good exercises. There are lots of
college geometry texts you can find this stuff in, but most of them are aimed at math-ed
majors; this book and Coxeter's other one (see below) have them all beat.
[PC] I like this book. I don't own it but I've flipped through it more than once and I agree that it
has a pleasantly non-brain-dead quality to it. There are interesting geometric facts that you
probably haven't seen before in here.