Book excerpt: Synchrotron radiation has been a revolutionary and invaluable research tool for a wide range of scientists, including chemists, biologists, physicists, materials scientists, geophysicists. It has also found multidisciplinary applications with problems ranging from archeology through cultural heritage to paleontology. The subject of this book is x-ray spectroscopy using synchrotron radiation, and the target audience is both current and potential users of synchrotron facilities. The first half of the book introduces readers to the fundamentals of storage ring operations, the qualities of the synchrotron radiation produced, the x-ray optics required to transport this radiation, and the detectors used for measurements. The second half of the book describes the important spectroscopic techniques that use synchrotron x-rays, including chapters on x-ray absorption, x-ray fluorescence, resonant and non-resonant inelastic x-ray scattering, nuclear spectroscopies, and x-ray photoemission. A final chapter surveys the exciting developments of free electron laser sources, which promise a second revolution in x-ray science. Thanks to the detailed descriptions in the book, prospective users will be able to quickly begin working with these techniques. Experienced users will find useful summaries, key equations, and exhaustive references to key papers in the field, as well as outlines of the historical developments in the field. Along with plentiful illustrations, this work includes access to supplemental Mathematica notebooks, which can be used for some of the more complex calculations and as a teaching aid. This book should appeal to graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and senior scientists alike.