Brian Books

I've only been working with Crystal for a few weeks but am already putting together some pretty decent reports. I could not have done it without this book. After such a short amount of time my copy is somewhat dog-eared and filled with yellow post it notes for quick reference to the things I need. It is open at my desk whenever I work with Crystal.

If you are a Crystal novice this book provides an excellent foundation for Crystal Reports. If you are an intermediate/advanced user there is plenty here for you as well. I especially like the financial twist the report provides since most of my reports are payroll, general ledger and accounts payable/receivable related.

The discussion forum associated with the book is also an excellent resource. I was "stuck" on a couple issues and was helped by both the author and other users on the forum.

Bischof's book is a complete, well-researched reference that quickly arms a novice Crystal Reports user with the techniques necessary to create sound, well-formatted financial (and other) reports. The appendix on Balance Statements and Income Statemens is a fabulous jump-start for those who must get up to speed quickly! If Crystal Reports is your platform for information delivery, this book belongs in your library.

The very clearly written style, REAL WORLD EXAMPLES!!!, and great technical content make this book a must have for Crystal Reports Development.

5 Stars

This is my first crystal report book and i can say this is the best crystal report book ever i found. Every chapters has a lot of Tutorials and Tips.

This book - like others written by Brian Bischof - is well laid out and clearly written. It has many excellent examples, and they are easy to find and utilize. It is also quite apparent that he has gone to considerable effort to illustrate the many new features that are to be found in CR XI.

I have had to purchased numerous books in the last year, trying to understand the differences between Visual Basic ver. 6 with Crystal Reports ver. 6, and Visual Studio.NET 2003 with its version of Crystal Reports and beyond to VS.NET2005 and CR-XI. Brian's books are the only ones that I have close at hand for when any problems arise.

This writeup contains spoilers about the events that happened in the couple of years of Daredevil prior to the issues (Vol. 2 #s 26-31) reprinted here, so if you haven't read the earlier issues and are planning to, you may want to skip this review; the first issues of Volume 2 are reprinted in the Trade Paperback "Guardian Devil".


The Kingpin knows that Matt Murdock and Daredevil are one and the same, and has for quite some time (okay, everybody probably knows that one; it goes back quite a ways). But it, although the Kingpin's organization and Daredevil are constantly at war with one another, it's been a long time since Kingpin attempted to strike out at the Matt Murdock side of the DD/Murdock double identity. Quite a complicated relationship has developed between these two enemies over the years, and the Kingpin seems to have reached the point where he feels it's some kind of matter of honor to strike only against the Daredevil aspect of his nemesis; this in fact goes along quite faithfully with his character: the Kingpin is a ruthless, murderous individual, but he has his own code of honor that makes sense to him, and he prides himself and not violating it even when it would make his life a lot easier.

Here's the hook for the story: the Kingpin's men also know, with a fair degree of certainty, that Murdock is Daredevil, but they know their employer's general feelings on the matter and play ignorant. Into this scenario comes a breash, ambitious young up-and-comer in the world of organized crime, a new lietenant to the Kingpin named Sammy Silke. When Silke, who's got a deep resentment of all the costumed characters involved in the organized crime business or involved in opposing it, learns of what the others know, he's appalled and launches a two-fold plan: destroy Murdock/Daredevil on his own; and try to convince others in the Kingpin's crime empire to join him in a coup attempt against the now-blind Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin.

"Underboss" may be the single best 6-issue run of Daredevil out there, and brings in some of the most shocking changes in the status qwuo to hit the Marvel Universe in the last few years. Truly outstanding.

I never really liked Daredevil but this changed when I read "Underboss" by Bendis. Bendis' talent lies in making super heroes like Daredevil seem realistic and as if he could exist in our world. Underboss is a story about Sammy Silke, a traditional mobster who is trying to become the new Kingpin. It is reminescent of the Godfather by Mario Puzo but there are no ripoffs of line (Unlike another book called Dark Victory published by Marvel's competitor.) Sammy wants to be the new Kingpin by taking out Daredevil the traditional way:using traditional hitmens form the mob. He doesn't want to hire colorful villians such as bullseyes or boomerang. Just take out Daredevil like the mob would do it. Does he succeed? Buy the book and find out.

Underboss is Bendis at his best. Here he writes grounded and realistic crime stories, even though the main character (to a certain extent) is a blind man in tights.

Underboss introduces Silke, a new player in the crime underworld, that will have a significant impact in Murdock's life by the time this story arc is over. Silke is a very interresting character, I only hope Bendis picks up on his storyline in the next arcs. The plot starts with Silke and some of the Kingpin's men betraying the blind Wilson Fisk Caesar style, while a reward is being offered to the man who kills Matt Murdock. What unfolds from the two plot lines is great and makes the reader want to read the whole thin in one go, I admit wanting to put it down, but not being able to.

Bendis makes this a realistic crime story, which is ultimately about betrayal. He focuses on Silke, Murdock, the death of Wilson Fisk and also has Vanessa Fisk playing a significant part in the story. Bendis writes some of the best dialogue in the industry, and his style of talking heads once again help the story a lot, since its mostly moved by dialogue. Bendis also jumps around a lot in time to tell this story and it works well, never leaving the reader confusued.

The art by Maleev is very good, his layouts are great and his pencils give the book a perfectly suited Noir feel. His storytelling abilities are great as well, as his drawings are never ambiguous, always sending a clear message of what is happening, this is mostly evident in the 'Nuff Said' issue, where there is no dialogue, even without Bendis' biggest device to move plots is not present, Maleev still manages to make the story interresting even though the plot doesnt move forward too much, it still shows the consequences of having a price on your head, as well as teasing the return of Bullseye in the latter volumes of the series.

"Daredevil: Underboss", is not your average superhero book, its an extremely compelling story, which will most definately leave you wanting more when its done, and trust me when I say, the next volume is even better.

Daredevil is a book at its best when the lead character is pitted against real danger and Brian Michael Bendis puts him there. In the Underboss storyarc, a criminal named Mr. Silke has stepped in on the Kingpin's territory and is attempting to root it out from the inside. Convincing his own henchmen that Wilson Fisk's reign needs to end, he manages a coup of epic proportions, with Matt Murdock caught in the midst of the whirlwind. The ramifications of this storyline are still rocking Daredevil's world now.
With Bendis penning the book and Alex Maleev depicting the dark world of Hell's Kitchen, Underboss is an amazing read. These two talents have established a unique style for the book that puts it among the Frank Miller, Kevin Smith and David Mazzuchelli runs of Daredevil perfection.
The trade paperback format does all of the art justice, compiling several issues of intensity into one amazing read.

I was never a huge Daredevil fan, for no reason in particular. With the recent attention from the feature film, and my appreciation for the writing of Brian Michael Bendis, I enthusiastically dove right into "Underboss". Bendis is remarkable, bringing the reader right in with Daredevil/Matt Murdock's thoughts and feelings. Maleev's art is perfect for the portrayal of the darkness and seedier side of Hell's Kitchen. The city lives and breathes around us as we follow Matt through his trials and tribulations.

As much as I enjoy traditional superhero stories, I'm even more impressed with Bendis' intention of making sure the reader knows all about the man behind the mask. By making us aware of Dardevil's internal struggles and imperfections, I was identifying and empathizing with him all the way. After a certain point, some costumed crusaders can lose the reader by being too invinceable, too invulnerable, too perfect. Matt Murdock is a human being, whether he's in costume or not.

Bendis and Maleev also give us a well developed plot and a diverse cast of supporting characters. It's easy to envision "Underboss" as a gripping thriller of a movie, or a page turner of a novel. Congratulations to Bendis and Maleev for giving us such enjoyable reading. I look forward to reading the next collection.

This book collects the first series of DEMO (12 short stories). In my opinion it's the best work of Brian Wood so far. Both the text and the art evolve during this book, giving birth to great stories. For those looking for comics with soul DEMO is a must read.

I wasn't sure if I'd like this, but I found it cheap. Wow. This blew me away. Like a more poignant, creative and realistic Heroes. The 12 issues collected here are each stand alone stories. The artist changes her style with each one. Such a cool, fast read. If you can dig black and white, intelligent indie book, you'll dig Demo. And catch up now, because the author announced recently that volume 2 will be coming out soon thru Vertigo.

I read these stories when they were coming out as single issues a few years back. Picking up the collection, I forgot how compelling and different each story is. The major theme linking all of the stories is people with a dilema and some "power" that pushes the story to explore themselves. Each chapter is a stand alone story, yet a common idea runs through the whole book-that no matter what gifts we have about us it's how we use them. Some stories are happy, others depressing, but all have an air of truth that most of us can relate to.
I enjoy the rough, punkesque feel that some of the tales have. It's an atmosphere of being an outsider regardless of the situation and how the individual deals with it. Becky Cloonan's art is wonderful and changes in regards as to what the situations is. It can feel like manga, independent, or stylized but never repeats any of the other chapters. She amazed me by doing so much with so few pages. Wood's writing is quick, to the point and doesn't weigh down the flow. He reminds me of what it's like to be younger, struggling with growing up, fighting the world and ourselves to become something more. Each story plays up emotions ranging from love to hate to empathy to pride and more. Imagine a story where superpowers take a backseat to the heart and that is Demo.

I read a lot of graphic novels -- actual stories, not just compiled superhero comics -- and I rarely come across anything this literary. Most of these twelve stories could easily have been published, without pictures, in a "little" magazine somewhere. The intriguing thing is how they evolve, first to last, from "NYC" and "Bad Blood," which actually are about not-necessarily-super powers with a Rod Serling twist, to "One Shot, Don't Miss" and "Breaking Up" and "Damaged," which will stay with you a long, long time. And the last panel of the last story will truly grab you by the throat. Amazing writing.

With DEMO Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan present an amazing set of dark stories with brilliant black/white art. Each story is short but telling, as we see several teens coping with the rougher side of having superpowers. This is much better reading and art than can be found in the similar Marvel comic NYX. I highly recommend this collection over the mainstream's version as it has more grit and more heart.

If you're like me, you've probably sampled many beers over your lifetime. You may have also considered brewing your own beer from time to time. Mr. Kunath's book is an excellent reference to the process. Full of great advice, this book is more than a simple "how to" guide; it is a well researched exploration of beer making, complete with beautiful photos and illustrations. If you've ever considered brewing beer, buy this book! Mr. Kunath, I raise this glass to you.

Kunath's love of beer, brewing, and writing all combine to form a spectacular feast of knowledge and enchantment. The author establishes a relationship with the reader that make one feel he may have spent time brewing with him. His artful wit along with necessary instructions gives the reader a full reward. I am not a professional brewer, but from my days at SUNY Cortland, I can tell you that Kunath captures the "clock-tower" of brewing. My wife enjoyed the book as well. Hats off to Kunath, that little devil! A job well done!

I raise my glass to Mr. Kunath. I have struggled with brewing on and off for years. Finally I stumbled across this book. I orignally brought it home for the coffee table. With its exquisite illustrations and presentation it is a perfect way to demonstrate my hobby to my guests. However, when I actually read the information, recipes and data I was amazed. This book is the ultimate guide for the homebrewer. From the absolute novice to the experienced brewer Mr. Kunath gives the reader all of the tools necessary to improve their brew. Cheers!

My brother is was very interested in home brewing. I bought this book as a birthday present and he was thrilled. Last week I tried a sample of his first batch, it was wonderful. Mr. Kunath deserves high praise!!!! The book was easy to follow and very informative!

I enjoyed the book but the information was too basic for the advanced brewer. One of the best features of this book is the section that steps the intermediate (extract and grain) brewer into the realm of "all grain." The "Don't worry..." theme of brewing has been carried through without using the cliche. I do highly recommend the book for those who enjoy malt extract/malt extract and grain brewing and want to improve their product or are working their way toward advanced brewing.

Cheers!

I had been looking for a book that explained the technical aspects and the sales techniques of commercial real estate. This book combines them both. There is a lot of meat in this book instead of fluff. I highly recommend it!

Whether you're a real estate agent selling commercial and investment property or an investor purchasing and selling commercial real estate, the field of Commercial Real Estate Sales and Investment Property Sales is very complex, with a language all its own.

Challenges in commercial real estate sales include mathematical projections, return calculations, zoning issues, legal issues, contract issues, environmental inspections, tax consequences and the entire minefield lately of commercial mortgages and loans.

In the "Fundamentals of Listing and Selling Commercial Real Estate", Loren Keim, the author, has made the complex understandable with an easy-to-read book. An excellent job, I give it 5 stars!

Commercial real estate is an extremely complex arena loaded with a minefield of legal, financial and emotional pitfalls investors, buyers, and sellers of commercial property must avoid.

Loren Keim cuts through the fluff in his new book "The Fundamentals of Listing and Selling Commercial Real Estate" to highlight and explain the basics of commercial real estate transactions from how a commercial property should be analyzed and compared with other commercial real estate, how the income of the property should be analyzed and what financing methods are available and how to talk like a pro with all the commercial broker and investor lingo that's thrown around in the real estate industry.

This particular book should be mandatory to read for any real estate agent planning to represent a commercial property or an investor. The explanation of marketing commercial real estate in the Internet age, and the samples and dialogues alone are worth the price of admission.

Excellent book for a career in commercial real estate or investment real estate. Well written, lots of great examples, including explanations of 1031 exchanges, income analysis, site and property analysis, and more. Everything you need to be a success in the field of commercial real estate.

In the past, I had been disappointed when reading other books about Commercial Real Estate. I've seen real basic introduction books, books that define investment and commercial terms, but don't really explain them, and books that just paste together checklists about selling investment property or commercial property.

This book was totally different. "The Fundamentals of Listing and Selling Commercial Real Estate" was entertaining. It was understandable. And it helps lay out exactly what to do in order to succeed in commercial and investment real estate.

The Fundamental's part of the book is the best resource for commercial brokers I've ever seen. There are explanations of each subcategory of commercial property, not just the basics, and the terminology associated with each subcategory is in easy to understand language. There are wonderful explanations of all the various ways to calculate return on investment, why each one is preferred by some investors or commercial real estate buyers, and how to look outside the box for commercial financing sources. There's even a section on negotiating leases, the benefits of various types of commercial leases, and what clauses are practical to add.

The Practical part of the book lays out a complete game plan for success in your career, including step by step instructions for some prospecting and marketing methods, sample letters, and dialogues. It even lays out how to write a letter of intent and full contract.

I can't tell you how impressed I was with this book. If you're selling commercial real estate, this SHOULD be part of your library of information.

This is a totaly awesome book it has so many cool insights of so many different teens. This is a good book to read if you need advise or just to realize that your not alone in the world when it becomes different and unknown. I hope that all teenagers read this book, because everyone will get something out of it!

I read this one and liked it! I can say that Dr. Seaward can put into words the best help for teenagers I've read. He comprehends the conflicts of a teenager's life very well; better than most adults. The book is written in large part by teenagers that he interviewed throughout the nation, so it isn't as if it's just an adult telling teenagers how to solve their problems - this is teenagers giving peers their insight to problems that they've experienced and understand - it's shocking; you wouldn't believe some of the things that these kids go through that we don't know about. I particularly enjoyed the section in which the interviewed teenagers gave their advice to the reading parents of teenagers. I give it five stars and would most certainly recommend it for anyone who is a teenager or has a teenager.

This book is fabulous. I'm not in the habit of writing reviews but felt I couldn't resist in this circumstance. Teenagers are such a mystery! This book really helped me develop a better appreciation and understanding of what it is like to be a teenager in today's world. I also felt it provided an honest conversation from teens in their own words rather than lecturing to us absently about the topic. I feel I have a much better handle on what's going on with my teenagers.

The author writes in a very candid, down-to-earth style and I found myself unable to put the book down. I recommend this book to teens and parents alike!

Everyone should read this book as a way to understand our youth culture. Young people want to be heard (even when they shut us out); often, they are crying out for help. This book presents a starting point for talking to teens about how they see the world and, more important, how they feel about their place in the world.

This book gives insight to the real teenager and thoughts they may not normally share in a verbal manner. It is honest and expressive in a way that kids can relate to. What a wonderful reading for both adults and kids.

Sack's book had me both thinking and laughing. A great book that provides readers with a roadmap for thinking about their own lives and what they may want to pass down to their children.

I'm a huge fan of Brian Sack's Banterist website so I pre-ordered this book. What a treat it is! Lots of laugh-out-loud moments, but also some very insightful obervations about today's society and our culture. This book would make a fabulous Baby Shower gift for new moms and dads. Better give it BEFORE the baby arrives while they have time to read it!

... so hard on the subway that people are looking at you. 'Tis true. The even better part of this book, is that it is very very touching. It's so good that I've been reading it aloud to friend who have already bought it.
Bravo!

For the past few nights, I've annoyed my husband by busting out laughing while reading this book. Brian is a funny writer with a clever book that's more memoir than advice book, though I will save mine for my boys for when they're old enough to read about Irish pubs and French stalkers.

"In the Event of My Untimely Demise: Twenty Things My Son Needs to Know" is a laugh a minute (or second, depending on whether or not you're speed-reading). For anyone who's ever read Mr. Sack's blog, banterist dot com, or seen any of his commentaries on The Glenn Beck Program, you won't be disappointed by his first book. It seems that whatever Brian Sack touches is comedy gold (he even co-produced, of all things, a comedy-documentary, "Johnny Berlin"). I highly recommend this book. It may yet become my third favorite piece of comedic writing behind Steve Martin's shamefully out-of-print "Cruel Shoes, and Woody Allen's "Without Feathers."

LET'S OPEN A BOTTLE: MY JOURNEY THROUGH THE SPANISH WINE REVOLUTION takes readers to Spain along with the English teacher/author, who considers the Spanish wine revolution. Murdock is an expatriate living in Madrid the past fifteen years: his background lends to a blend of memoir and travelogue which brings readers into the heart of Spanish wine country politics and winemaking tradition. Travel tips include listings of regional wineries, specialties, and recommendations for destination-bound wine fans. A wonderful, detail-packed read for any interested in Spanish wines and wine region history.

Diane C. Donovan, Editor
California Bookwatch

Books on Spanish wine are difficult to find, good books on Spanish wine are rare and books such as Brian Murdock's are unique. Not only is it up-to-date and thorough but it blends a current knowledge of the Spanish wine industry with insights into Spain's history and culture. Robert Parker (aka God), the world's leading wine critic, has said of Spanish wine that,"Spain has done an outstanding job of maintaining respect for its traditions of the past and also looking forward to the future." This wine revolution is perfectly captured in Murdock's book.
However, this is not just a (well above) average reference book on Spanish wine regions and their wines. This book is far more. It is a personal journey, literally, among the highways and byways- most Spanish wineries are on byways- where the author talks to a wide cross-section of individuals involved in wine-making. This allows the reader to hear the voices of those actually making the wide variety of quality wines which Spain is now producing.
In this personal account the author's acute perceptions, deep knowledge, wit and sheer passiopn of and for Spanish wines burns through. At the end of this excellent read Murdock modestly states that he is no 'expert' but '...after a helluvah lot of work, I also should know what I am talking about.' Indeed he does.
As a wine merchant based in Spain and having visited many of the same places and tasted the same wines as the author I can bear witness to its accuracy and insight. This first-class book will appeal not only to all those who wish to explore Spanish wines but also ita charming people and rich culture.

This is a great read and should not be simply thought of as another boring guide to wine. The author weaves plenty of humor and history into this aptly named "Journey Through the Spanish Wine Revolution". The reader learns how and why the vast history of the Iberian Peninsula has shaped today's Spanish wine industry. The end result is not only do I seek out Spanish wines in restaurants and stores, but I also want to travel to Spain to check out the various regions and their unique cultures and geographies. I should also note that I have given this book as a gift to a few people who have loved it as well.

As someone who's trying to learn more about the "wine culture" after years of clueless intrigue, I finally found the perfect source. While it primarily discusses wines from a lesser known country/producer(Spain), this book provides a firm backbone that's easily translatable across wine regions around the world. Not sure what to expect when I started, I was quickly taken by the extreme detail discussing individual wines and vineyards, and how they vary from region to region. As much as I learned about various "reds" and "whites", I received an equally thorough education on the history of each region. Humor and a lighter tone throughout make this a fun, interesting, and very informative read.

When I see this book, I thought "OK, a modern guide for spanish wines, I'll get it". But it's much more than this! It's a really good landscape of the spanish wine culture, with many facts surrounding the wine and spanish people.

I think Mr. Murdock has done a really good job, and it will be useful for many pepole who loves wine and wants to know more about Spain, its wine and the people who lives there.

5 stars are for all the book if we excepts the part for andalusian wines. They are worth of a full book! :-)

A perfect gift or a perfect self-gift.

Excellent Book. Who said an old dog can't learn new tricks. Found several little tid-bits that have trimmed a number of my scripts or changed the way I've implemented services! A great desktop companion for advanced and intermediate admins.

This is a very good book. These remarks are for Linux users on the way up. If you are already an über-üser, well, you will probably like this book anyway.

If you don't have the first volume, you might want to start with it. It has some simple but very useful things that apply to just about anyone with their own Linux box and a command line.

This volume is much more advanced, and most of the tricks and techniques deal with much more specialized problem domains, ie. things you might not have run into yet. One advantage of this book over the first is that it is very up to date in its recommendations of existing software to use.

'Linux Server Hacks Volume Two' by William von Hagen is an outstanding companion guide for ALL Linux users and administrators. Packed with over 450 pages and 100 new hacks not in Volume 1, these aren't just known by everybody things that you can do with Linux, these are hot tips and tricks that most any Linux freak can excel from learning about.

Chapters Covered:

01. Linux Authentication
02. Remote GUI Connectivity
03. System Services
04. Cool Sysadmin Tools and Tips
05. Storage Management and Backups
06. Standardizing, Sharing, and Synchronizing Resources
07. Security
08. Troubleshooting and Performance
09. Logfiles and Monitoring
10. System Rescue, Recovery, and Repair

Pick this book up now, you will NOT be disappointed in this delcious Linux FEAST!!

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

I can't say enough about the work done in Linux Server Hacks vII by the two Bs. Bill and Brian have hit the ball out of the ballpark with this one.

Just the section on LVM (Logical Volume Management) have saved my bacon!

Every single "hack" (read tip) is extremely practical, applicable and relevant to managing and administering Linux systems whether "servers" or not!

The absolute best part of this book is that you get really useful, insightful views into the experiences of seasoned veterans of Unix systems. If you sit in a NOC or if you're the 24x7 guy/gal on a server farm, this book is an occupational requirement! Everyone else will appreciate it if they're running Linux. In my modest network of perhaps 30 Linux systems, I can tell you that I saved hours of effort with just two of the hacks included in this volume. Considering the time savings, buying this book saved my company more than 300% on the cover price.

Are you a system administrator? If you are, then this book is for you! Authors Bill Von Hagen and Brian K Jones, have done an outstanding job of writing volume two of a book that focuses on cool hacks they developed or used in their server and system administration careers.

Von Hagen and Jones, begin by exploring the authentication options that are available to you in heterogeneous networked computing environments and simplify administering user accounts and passwords. Then, the authors explore ways of connecting to remote systems. Next, the authors explain how to set up central servers that do things like synchronize the time on all the systems in your environment, deliver IP addresses to newly connected hosts, and integrate these services with existing ones. The authors then present a variety of cool sysadmin tips and techniques that they've accumulated over the years, including how to keep processes running without writing a daemon or staying logged in, how to use PXE to netboot Linux, how to share information with fellow sysadmins in a centralized fashion, how to get the most out of classic but incredibly useful terminal-oriented applications, and so on. They continue to explore some cool ways of making it easier for you to manage storage, deploy new systems, do backups of today's huge disks, and even reduce the need for some of the restore requests that occasionally clog every sysadmin's inbox. Then, the authors provide some tips and tricks for managing distributed storage and making sure the administrative environments on your servers are synchronized. They then discuss a wide range of security tools and techniques that can help you sleep at night and protect your systems at the same time. Next, they provide techniques for optimizing system performance, whether by figuring out who's hogging the entire CPU and shooting down that user's network sessions or by using cool knobs in the /proc filesystem to tweak system performance or using journaling filesystems to minimize system restart time. Then, they include hacks that enable you to centralize log information in a variety of ways, be warned when problems arise, and get the most out of system status information, whether it's log information, internal disk controller status data, or remote hardware status information that you can collect via SNMP. Finally, the authors show you how to boot crippled systems so that you can diagnose problems, repair munged filesystems, and even recover deleted files of data that was stored on disks that have gone belly up.

This most excellent book has presented hacks that are techniques that the authors have used at various times. More importantly, they view these techniques as time- and hassle-savers that are usually downright fun and cool.

Mass Affluence complements The Dollarization Discipline (Fox and Gregory)by explaining the emotional needs of today's mass-market customer (the end-user to our broadcaster customers). Put the two together to see how product development and sales should work in the coming decade.

(Review based on reading a commercial executive summary of both books.)

A collaboration between Paul F. Nunes (Executive Research Fellow at the Accenture Institute for High Performance Business in Wellesley, Massachusetts) and Brian A. Johnson (Senior Research analyst at the New York City based investment research and management firm of Sanford C. Bernstein & Company), Mass Affluence: 7 New Rules Of Marketing To Today's Consumer reveals that there is a pendulum swing in marketing from "one-to-one" customer strategies back to mass marketing. But there's a problem -- Today's more affluent but cautious consumers aren't responding to the strategies that worked with their middle-class predecessors. Mass Affluence lays out seven new rules of mass marketing specifically directed for use with the increasingly affluent populace and shows how innovative companies are implementing these novel strategies with high-end products that fill a heretofore ignored middle-ground in ordinary product categories ranging from clothing, to oral care, to house hold cleaning, and more. A ground-breaking, seminal work, Mass Affluence should be considered mandatory reading by any corporate manager charged with the responsibility of marketing his company's services or products in today's increasingly volatile, global, and competitive marketplace.

It's not just the rich who are getting richer; it's also a broad swath of some 22 million U.S. households who have gained significant levels of wealth, income and discretionary spending over the past 30 years. In a meticulously well-researched and well-written marketing best seller, researchers Paul Nunes and Brian Johnson document the phenomenon of mass affluence. They then describe the tremendous opportunities marketers have in crafting innovative new products and services to serve the top 20 percent of households that have some 60 percent of the nation's discretionary spending power.

The timing of this important work could not be better for retailers and brands struggling to increase share and margins in a Darwinian marketplace. I've been involved in consumer marketing for more than twenty years and I've seen only a handful of marketing books that can really make a difference. "Mass Affluence" is one of them. We were so impressed with the book that we bought copies for all our associates. I highly recommend it.

There are zillions of books out there on marketing moderate to high end items, most of them repeating the same old principles (yawn). You certainly don't need to waste your time or money on those.
Happily, this one is different, showing sellers how to reach the elusive buyers who may fall somewhere between high end and moderate end...perhaps prefering items that fall somewhere between the High end of Moderately priced...or, if you like, the low end of Luxury. They'll spend plenty...but they have definite needs.
This book shows sellers how to appeal to those needs and to market the same (or similar) items in a way to appeal to diverse buyers.
By the way, it is always a plus when a publisher takes advantage of the "Look Inside the Book" feature on Amazon - and this publisher does. So don't take my word on the benefits of this book. Take a look at a sample page or two and see if it appeals to you.
I will add that there is a LOT of info crammed into this book and I learned quite a bit. I'd also recommend Let Them Eat Cake.

So many books about marketing or business are long on high-minded concepts, but very short on ideas you can use when you go to work the next day. Mass Affluence happily breaks that mold and offers up useful ideas in almost every chapter.

Nunes does a great job of breaking down how to approach the large demographic of relatively wealthy consumers into different functional areas and makes a chapter out of each. He explains how something, like billing, was typically done in the past and how it should be handled now. Beyond that, Nunes has found pertinent real-world examples of every concept he discusses and gets helpful input from the business people out using the strategies on a day-to-day basis.

The result of all Nunes work (I'm sure it would've been easier to write the book without running down real-world examples) is a highly practical guide to setting up or improving upon a business that caters to wealthy, but not mega-rich, customers.

Highly recommended.