As this field developed over the past two decades, researchers have made significant advances in synchrotron radiation sources and their corresponding x-ray beamlines along with electron energy loss spectrometry. Thanks to de Groot (chemistry, Utrecht U.) and Kotani physics emeritus, U. of Tokyo), readers get a solid background in more fundamental aspects of the spectrometry of solids along with clear explanations of recent developments. They provide full coverage of x-ray photoemission spectroscopy and x-ray absorption spectrometry (along with their many-body change transfer effects), theoretical approaches (including change transfer multiplet theory) that can be used to interpret core spectroscopies of systems, x-ray magnetic circular dichroism, and resonant x-ray emission spectroscopy. They also include appendices with derivations, theoretical tests and calculations and developments of new experimental tools and data analysis. The illustrations are well-chosen and helpful without being obtrusive. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)