Book excerpt: Nonparametric Regression and Generalized Linear Models focuses on the roughness penalty method of nonparametric smoothing and shows how this technique provides a unifying approach to a wide range of smoothing problems. The emphasis is methodological rather than theoretical, and the authors concentrate on statistical and computation issues. Real data examples are used to illustrate the various methods and to compare them with standard parametric approaches. The mathematical treatment is self-contained and depends mainly on simple linear algebra and calculus. This monograph will be useful both as a reference work for research and applied statisticians and as a text for graduate students.