The Book Review Column

Abstract

Computational Intractability: A Guide to Algorithmic Lower Bounds (The MIT Press, forthcoming), by Erik Demaine (MIT), William Gasarch (University of Maryland), and Mohammad Hajiaghayi (University of Maryland), is a sequel to Garey & Johnson's classic book Computers and Intractability: A Guide to the Theory of NP-Completeness. A draft is available online at https://hardness.mit.edu. The Delicate Art of Brute Force: How to Compute It When You Can’t Solve It (Princeton University Press, 2026), by Paul Nahin, looks at a series of apparently intractable real-world problems and shows the thought process that allows computational solution. Exploring Computational Geometry: Theory and Python Implementations (Springer, 2026), by Adis Alihodžić (University of Sarajevo), presents a modern approach to computational geometry through the lens of Python programming.