Essential and Comprehensive - Why This Book is one of the BEST Investments you will make!
596385
Whether you are a veteran chef, photographer etc or novice 'wanna be', this is an essential "must have" for your collection. At nearly 400 pages, this is a comprehensive undertaking that doesn't compromise quality or clarity. Here is why this is a "MUST HAVE" for anyone remotely interested in the culinary arts, food styling, photography or related trends.

1. Comprehensive. As mentioned, this is nearly 400 pages packed FULL of information. There is a balanced blend of photographs and text without one dominating the other. Instead, each enhances the other with ample detail/discussion and pertinent photos. Tone is conversational yet complete providing veteran and novice readers sufficient information to achieve desired results.

2. Beautiful Big Book. Not only is the book 400 pages but it's a large book. This is the hard cover with a clear dust jacket...complete with a "peel away" safety sheeting! Organized for ease of use, no detail is missed. Lovely Headings are bold/brightly colored for quick reference, ample charts/other make for simple comparison, excellent resource/glossary and index section. It is obvious a great deal of care went into the creation of this resource!

3. Content. Of course, any food styling book wouldn't be worth much without superb content and this is where Custer really excels. Tips and excellent information abound...from basic tidbits to in-depth discussion that can only come from years of experience, it's obvious the author is an expert in every sense of the word. I am absolutely smitten by the level of detail - combined with clarity - provided throughout. Chapter highlights include:
-Food Styling Overview
-The Medium is Everything
-Your Food Styling Teammates
-You Got the Job...Now What?
-Prepping the Assignment
-At the Shoot
-About Photography
-The Basics of Propping
-The Basics of Tv & Film Production Work
-The Food Stylists Tools of the Trade
-Working with the Food
-The Business of Food Styling
-Beyond Food Styling
-Tips for Chefs, Caterers, and Others who want to Style their Food
-Reviewing the Last Fifty/sixty years of Food styling and photography

However, within each of the above chapter are numerous sub=sections, tips, pertinent photographs, charts and much more.  For example, a seemingly "mundane" topic related to the tools of the trade, we get a quick peak into the kit and set tray. We see actual examples of a simple kit set-up, the set tray, a listed photograph of each individual tool plus tips of the trade that make all the difference in a day to day setting.  For example, how do you know which type of rice to cook and when? Find out on page 145!

How do you make a panini look enticing...rather than that big flat floppy thing you create in your own kitchen? Find out on page 207!

What is available when and how do you locate out of season fruits/vegies? Find out on pages 171-173!

This is just a very short sample of the incredible amount of information contained in this book. It is NOT fluff or filler...rather page after page of great information!

For those that are comparing this to the other available options, this wins hands down.

I also own Food Styling for Photographers: A Guide to Creating Your Own Appetizing Art by Linda Bellingham and Jean Ann Bybee...an excellent resource but not nearly as comprehensive or detailed as this book.

Digital Food Photography by Lou Manna is another book I own/use but it tends to focus much more on the basics of digital photography. Many of the techniques and tricks/tips are duplicates from the comprehensive book "Food Styling" by Delores Custer.

Without a doubt, this is an absolute "must have" that will be used repeatedly. A perfect companion for anyone wanting to enter the field of food styling. It assumes nothing yet provides depth and details to inspire and inform even veteran styling professionals.

Exceptional!
2520028
This 'book' has been and is so much more than a book for me. This is a pivotal investment that I continously refer to as a guide and or manual for all facets of my life. I've read many different personal development books but never experienced one in which allows me to access the perfect amount of tid bits that universally apply to all spheres such as enhancing self confidence, management relationships and finance. Anyone that truly wants to grow or desire to uncover more about self mastery and personal growth should get this book!
Peak performance is a science and this book reveals all the invaluable formulas...in one book!
1982565
Pysh has created more than a book here. He has architected an informational community to smash the fears of investing that so many people have with a hammer of data, numbers and process that I personally was looking for. My biggest comment for potential readers like you is that you cannot only read this book if you expect to fully learn and undergo the phenomenal informational deep-dive that Pysh presents. You must take the time to read each chapter, follow up with each of the free videos that go through further explanation of the chapter, do the free exercises and examples, and use the free website for further information. This will take A LOT of time, but it's worth it. For many, taking meticulous notes may be a really good idea to centralize the key teachings they need. The free site also has a great discussion forum that is pretty active and gives even more information for people to develop a progressive understanding of the investment strategies. I want to underscore that all of this additional information on Pysh's site is FREE and work with the content in the book. You do not have to pay for anything, and there are no subscriptions.

Having read many investment books in the past, this has been the best one. If you want quantitative facts and a desire to learn about what all the ratios mean that investors use, how they interact with one another, the importance of bonds, and more importantly how much publicly reported business financials inform, this is the book to go with. Yes, the issues with typos mentioned in some of the comments are true, and it made me skeptical about the attention to detail of the author at first. Though there aren't many typos, hopefully Pysh will have an opportunity to edit a second edition. I also read a comment here that Pysh isn't an academician or economist, so why should he be an expert or write this book. As a regular-Joe investor, I appreciate that Pysh learned this all on his own, tested and prodded the process he made, and connected the investment strategies of Buffett with those he teaches. It's what makes him be able to explain everything in methodical, simple ways so that people can understand them. For me, that speaks volumes about the credibility he brings.

This book is so worth your money, as is the time you put into taking advantages of the supplemental information on Pysh's site that go with it.
14779
I bought Andrew's book and found it amazing! Like Andrew, I am an expatriate and thus my situation is different than some others. This book is valuable for all however, not just expats. It is not only chock full of verifiable, excellent investing advice, it's written in very straight-forward language. You can really tell that Andrew, like myself, is a teacher. He is able to communicate extremely well and at the end, you'll be frustrated that he didn't publish his book sooner. If he had, I certainly would have avoided a lot of costly mistakes. My only wish was for more discussion on property and the role it can play in building wealth.  Instead, I would recommend this book:

<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Expat-Teacher-s-Property-Guide/dp/B01N7VU7A6/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Expat Teacher's Property Guide</a>
345687
Whether you are wealthy (and want to stay that way) or you're not wealthy (and would like to someday be wealthy), taking the time to answer the author's question, which provides the title, beginning and ending for the book, will save you from tremendous headache and heartache, as well as time and money.

Written in a very approachable essay format, this collection of vignettes on topics ranging from stock selection and financial planning to various life lessons for personal and financial success helps the reader frame the central problem for all of us looking to invest successfully in equity markets in particular, and that is making money while simultaneously not falling prey to the various emotions, vicissitudes and general foolishness that governs all financial markets.  Essentially, Spooner has written a clever little book about getting on the right track and staying there, all the while fending off the incessant entreaties, brutal and overt (and more often, subtle and sweet), to go off the rails. The essays can be read out of sequence, and the book's size makes it a wonderful commuting companion during the week (I knocked off several of the essays to and from work).

It's the perfect book for those that work for a living, and eventually want to stop doing just that, and do not mind getting wealthy slowly by degrees and increments.  I found the weakest essay of the lot to be the one titled 'How Much Should You Buy' on pages 11-12 simply because I take issue with the idea of investing on rumor and hearsay alone (I am a tremendous advocate of full and thorough research- DO ONLY WHAT YOU FULLY AND THOROUGHLY UNDERSTAND, PEOPLE).  Additionally, being a big fan of intelligent, thoughtful diversification, I also take issue with the author's advice in this essay (he's a great advocate of making large bets and running concentrated portfolios, which is fine for the very well off, but potentially problematic for those of modest means).  I believe that investors large and small (with special emphasis for the small investor- hey, no matter how much research you've done, there's always something you don't know and always remember that sizable permanent losses, those greater than ten percent of your capital, are catastrophic for you the working stiff but insignificant for the large investor with say, ten million or more in funds to run) should ease into every position, set minimum and maximum capital contribution limits for each of component of their investment portfolio and always start by initially purchasing at the minimum level and dollar-cost averaging up to their maximum level.  That way, mistakes can be largely avoided.  I found the strongest essay in the book to be the one titled 'Your "Stake In Life" Stock'.  My only quibble with this essay is that the small investor should not limit him/herself to just one of these precious little gems, and in my mind, you should have at least a half dozen of these (and hey, the more, the merrier).  The advice here echoes that of one of my investment (super)heroes, Charlie Munger, who has often remarked that the only way to get really wealthy is to go into business, or at the very least, own a stake in a profitable enterprise with ample room to run.

This was my first Spooner book, and it won't be my last (in fact, I have one of his other books on my reading list).  Indeed, I have read the book three times, and I periodically dip into its contents for a quick consultation now and then.  I highly recommend it.
1302719
There is such a glut of information about investing and money matters available in the world in various forms that it becomes overwhelming for the average person. To those people, Id suggest buying this book. 8 Hour Investor is a practical guide to taking control of your money, written in such a way that it is easy to understand by those with little to no experience in money matters. It contains all the information you need.

This book highlights the importance of becoming financially literate, and then delivers. It explains various terms, the roles of various types of advisors, investment strategies and much more.

I learned a lot from this book, and would recommend it to anybody who wants to know how to become more financially independent and make smart investments.
4736188
The Strategist's Mind: The Art of High Return, Low Risk Investing is no question one of the best books you can find about investing. As a person who has little or no experience with investing, I find this book really useful as it has provided a basic framework about how to find out the true value of every investment.
It also brought out some really interesting ideas about diversification and talked about how one should prepare and plan investments for a life time. This book itself is a wonderful investment that all early investors should take a look. You can also see how the author is really knowledgeable about finance and investing.
Thus, I sincerely recommend this book for anyone who are serious about becoming a sophisticated investor in the future!
1315432
A very well-written and incredibly useful book!
4902894
With the recession throwing up so many professionals clutching a redundancy check, this to me is a fantastic place to make an investment! The unglamorous world of cleaning making a spectacular return. But to do that we need the nitty gritty aspects of running a business, and this book has it in spades. It's more than just well-written inspiration, it's a very, very thorough guide. There's so much I got from this, but for now here's two tasters: 1. creating a business that has no products except service and 2. don't employ family and friends. Here's a guy who knows his mops and dusters. If you've got the will and the energy, get the detail and buy this book!
4011279
Ed Moldaver is one of the most successful and respected Wealth Management Advisers of our time. This book exhaustively covers specific questions of every serious investor. In a plain language fashion, the author educates the investor while raising  to his/her attention to important but overlooked topics of concern. Does your investment behavior match your toleration of risk? What is the power of knowledge, experience, research and history in your plan to grow wealth? What is the value of asset allocation in the long term? Ed hands us pearls of wisdom that he has accumulated over years of successful high end wealth management in a book that is personally tailored for easy reading and understanding. I highly recommend this book to the novice or veteran investor. There are so many valuable topics that seem like basic knowledge but go overlooked by the commercial pundents. Whether you are just learning or are confirming the concepts of growing wealth, this book is a must read for any serious investor.
422806
In this easy to read and easy to understand book, you will find priceless,  ageless advice for creating, building and maintaining wealth, woven into a  wonderful story. This book will make for compelling, invaluable reading for  anyone--men or women, boys or girls--from ages 10--109 for generations to  come, with an eye for improving your financial standing in life. You will  thoroughly enjoy reading it because it's a great story, and you will refer  to it, and re-read it again and again for its usefulness. If only college  investment textbooks could be this good!
Apply the author's message to  your life, and you will reap both monetary and spiritual rewards!
2065269
If you do not know much about the stock market, this is a great place to start. This book teaches you in plain language the jargons of finance, its underlying mechanism, methodologies on how to invest, the philosophies of investment tycoons such as Warren Buffet & Benjamin Graham, how to do stock research, where to get the tools to do your stock research and so much more. This book is most certainly worth every penny. You can tell the author went out of his way to make sure you got a solid use value out of your book purchase. This book is a must read during the beginning on your path to stock invest and can still serve you as a reference guide in the future.
4433199
Mastering Stocks is an essential guide for anyone looking to get into the risky hobby/job of trading stocks. As the author states, you can get rich from playing the market but if you don't know what you are doing then you could conceivably lose everything you invested and be left with nothing. Hopefully, reading this will address any questions you may have concerning your new adventure. This is exactly why I chose to read this book. I have a few investments that I leave in the hands of others to deal with but I would love to learn more so that I can take an active part in trading them. I didn't want a dry read that would bore me to sleep before the second chapter and the cover of Mastering Stocks caught my eye with its bright coloring and its succinct title. Inside are thirty-nine chapters containing everything you could ever want or need to know about trading stocks. Theres information about how to get into the market and how much money you should have to back up your trading (at least $25 000 U.S.). If you don't want to go for the high end stocks, then there is a chapter about penny stocks and the pros and cons involved with trading them. Each chapter is laid out in such a way that there is a lot of information but it is presented in an interesting manner. Mr. Brown doesnt lecture or come across as a know-it-all. Instead, he lays the information out for the reader and its up to them to decide whether or not they are prepared for the risk that can happen if they venture down this path.
 Mastering Stocks does solely deal with the stock market in the United States, although the author does mention other markets, and this should be kept in mind while reading the book. As an example of how risky the market can be, Mr. Brown mentions a few stocks that seem fairly sure to be around. One of those is Sears which is now bankrupt; at least it is in Canada. Obviously, this is a very risky business and this book will certainly help with deciding if you want to partake or not.
 I read this in digital format and it worked perfectly on my ereader.
276733
Let me start off by saying that this was the book that completely opened my eyes to the world of investing, doing it smartly, and saving for retirement SMARTLY.  I went from knowing nothing about the subject to confidently re-allocating the assets in my 401K and even opening my very first brokerage account to save apart from retirement.  Gail Marks Jarvis is a splendid writer.  She writes with the layman in mind and explains everything simply but yet thoroughly so you don't miss anything important.  Gail stresses the importance of asset allocation and being patient with the stock market.  There will be ups and downs, times of great volatility, so it is important to ride it out knowing for the past 200 or so years, stocks have trended upward consistently.  This is essentially the view of those in the camp of investors who preach the buy-and-hold approach to investing.  Invest for the long term, not the short term!  And since we're all saving for retirement, this is the way to go!

Having said that, I must comment on the view that this book is outdated.  It is outdated if you're a mindless zombie who doesn't think for him/herself.  Gail talks about the average returns of stocks being in the 8-10% range for the past 100 years or so.  However, she herself stresses that returns may well be more like 6-7%.  It's true that Gail tells the reader to follow the asset allocation formula that she recommends, but she also says to use your brain and to allocate an amount to stocks for WHICH YOU ARE COMFORTABLE WITH.  Your 401K should tell you how much your portfolio is returning.  If it's on the lower side, you have the option to invest more regularly (if you can), or allocate more of your money to stocks (if you can tolerate the greater risk, but knowing stocks consistently trend upwards).  Again, Gail provides formulas on asset allocation, but she also tells you to tailor them to your unique needs and toleration for volatility/risk.  She mentions that most people say yes, if asked whether they can put away an extra $20/paycheck or month into their 401K.  If you do that, you are already saving significantly more because over time both the principal amount and capital gains get compounded.  Time is on your side.  And for those who are closer to retiring, you should have more in bonds/money market/stable value/cash, and these kinds of funds have lower returns anyway!

Another important note is that most investors invest emotionally.  They got burned the past decade by not one, but TWO horrible bear markets (dot-com bubble bust in 2001-2002 and the financial crisis in 2008-2009).  This resulted in disappointing yields of 1-3% for the past 10 years.  Investors forget that this is not the norm!  How many decades in the history of the stock market has had 2 severe bear markets like we've seen from 2001-2011?  Not many.  And the volatility we're going through now (which is wreaking havoc on short-term returns) is not unprecedented!  Returns are low right now, but in the long-term they will be raised by upswings that'll happen in the future.  If one stays the course he/she will still see steady gains.  There is over 200 years of stock market history that validates this.  And again, the volatility we're seeing now is not unprecedented.  It's happened before, but people are so caught up in the emotional roller coaster that they are acting hastily and only thinking of the now.  This ugliness will pass, just be patient.

So the main point I'm trying to get at is, this book has gems of wisdom that is TIMELESS.  Currently we are not seeing 8-10% returns, but investing 20, 30, 40 years, you should see something in that range.  But above all, use your brain and be patient!
4892803
Well, I love this book. I have given 100's of copies away since the 90's. It's all about the mind set. The story is fantastic and basic that even a junior high school student or Harvard MBA and Wharton Graduate can understand and take away actionable idea's to get control of there money. This book is about making money and your money making money. It's fantastic and simply the best investment you could make in yourself.
2860236
If you are familiar with the basics of investing (e.g., understand stocks and bonds, know how mutual funds work), then this is an ideal book for you to learn how to invest well for the long run. Swedroe explains why you should stop paying attention to Wall Street, the media, and almost everyone else, and follow the scientific investment method that is most likely to lead you to success in the long run. He provides all the explanations and tools you need. You only have to provide the necessary patience, discipline, and desire to learn.

In this second edition, Swedroe has accomplished the nearly impossible task of improving on a book that was already outstanding in its first edition.
3739911
A valuable resource in choosing good investment/s preferably for newbies or a refresher for learning different income avenues and how these investments works to generate compounding income. It is a good primer in establishing a business portfolio. A comprehensive and a well-verse information. I've learned a lot from it and would read it again to familiarize myself on this topics.