In the foreward of the third edition of "Sound Mind Investing", Larry Burkett writes "...I endorse the integrity and honesty of Austin Pryor. Obviously you, the reader, must evaluate his advice yourself. No one individual has the right advice for everyone, and anyone can, and will, be wrong in the changing economy we live in. But if you will spend the time to read carefully the counsel Austin provides in this book, you will find it both time and money well spent."

I agree wholeheartedly. After having read numerous introductory texts on money-management from a Christian perspective, this book is the most comprehensive and readable text of the lot.

Austin's book is divided into 6 Sections:

1) Getting Debt-free. The author considers this the first level of financial fitness, an equivalent of laying a proper foundation upon which to build. At this early point in the text, he discusses the importance of tithing in your plan. Austin writes "we are not commanded to give generously. Rather, our giving is a test of sincerity of our love and our willingness to trust in God's utter faithfulness" (based upon 2Cor 8:8,9:8). Austin goes on to say "When you pray about your giving, may I encourage you to give to the full measure of your gratitude and cheerfulness. And continue to ask God to enlarge your heart toward Him so you can eagerly embrace the sacrifice needed to give all the more."
In addition, budgeting as well as the dangers associated with the misuse of credit cards are discussed.

2) Saving for Future Needs. This includes the principles of saving money in a secure, low-risk emergency fund (financial planners recommend 3 to 6 months living expenses; Austin recommends $10,000) as well as in an accumulation fund for big-ticket items that you anticipate purchasing within 1 to 5 years. He also includes advice on preparing to help your children to finance their college or technical education. He believes that, if parents have the financial means, they should consider helping with the expenses of a college education for their children. Emphasis is given to the benefits of investing for your children's education as early as possible. Powerful examples are given. Note that Austin believes that children should be responsible for a portion of their educational expenses as well. Advice on where to invest this money is given, including but not limited to Ed IRAs and 529 plans.

3) Investing Your Surplus. Once you are debt-free and have adequate savings in an emergency fund, the author believes you can then begin to take educated risks by investing your surplus in mutual funds. This section is a primer on investment basics and mutual funds.

4) Diversifying for Safety. Austin is a strong proponent of building an age-appropriate,diversified portfolio through mutual fund investing. For the typical investor, he advocates "dollar-cost-averaging" or "value-averaging" strategies versus market-timing strategies, although he does admit venturing into market-timing strategies in his personal investment approach (He did this professionally in the past, but does not recommend market-timing for the average investor. Reasons are given). This book includes a short quiz that enables the reader to see what their personal tolerance is for investment risk. Once you determine your tolerance level, Austin leads you through determining your appropriate portfolio mix and shows you how your mix should change as you go through the various financial stages of your life.

5) Retirement Countdown. Austin wants his readers to have a realistic view of their needs for retirement. He discusses how to properly lower your investment risk as retirement approaches.

6) Investing that Glorifies God. The book ends with a section entitled "Investing that Glorifies God, a Biblical Blueprint for Building Your Financial House on Solid Rock". This section is priceless. Austin essentially reminds the reader of the importance of an eternal perspective, and that our investing should glorify God by acknowledging His sovereignty, valuing His majesty, builidng His Kingdom, upholding His righteousness, seeking His wisdom, and enjoying His blessing.

Please consider the counsel given in this book. I have and it has changed my financial life.

This is an awesome book! It is helpful for the beginner as well as someone who already has a "foundational" knowledge of finance. It is easy to read and understand and yet gives you a wealth of information. I read it cover to cover and even now often find myself using it as reference for making financial decisions. A must have for anyone interested in getting their financial house in order in a manner that is honoring to God. Worth every penny and more!

After trying to invest on my own,with mixed results; I've come to have a real admiration for the years of solid experience and great insight in Sound Mind Investing. The market perspective, great research and wonderful world view rate this book tops for me.

One of the great poems in the English language--and certainly a top contender for the greatest narrative poem. A retelling of the Alfred the Great's defeat of Guthrum and the Danes at the Battle of Ethandune (or the victory of the true power of Christianity over the inherent weakness of paganism), written to be read aloud or to oneself (but please do read it aloud). A ranking of ten stars would be more accurate. [This review refers to the first edition.]

The greatest poem ever written! Read it and it will lead you into a high and heroic world and change your life forever!

The greatest poem of the century. The100-page saga of King Alfred the Great's apparently hopeless war against the Vikings is all one dreams poetry might be - stirring the heart and soul, filled with beauty, wisdom and excitement. A timeless message of hope and wonder. A few passages stumble, as is inevitable in a work of this length, but these can be overlooked. Read this wonderful poem and it will lighten and change the world for you. The greatest antidote to depression and despair that I know!

Treasure hunting and mysteries in U-Bet, Montana, of all places. And can a sophisticated NY City editor and a rustic rodeo cowboy find happiness together? If so, where? A great sequel to The Lost Manuscript of Martin Taylor Harrison. Hope there's more in this series.

I think Stephen Bly is a great author. Unfortunately these books aren't available in my language yet, so I have to keep reading him in English. Comparing to anyone else? Zane Grey - but from another viewpoint. Being the second book in the "Austin-Stoner FILES" this book doesn't let you down, even though sequels tend to do just that. Both plot and story is good, and the conclusion is spiritually edifying. My advice to those that bought it: Keep on reading it: You'll enjoy it. And to those who hasn't: Buy it! You won't be disappointed!

This book combined unique characters with a great story line to create a 5 star book. I'm an avid reader of christian fiction and few books have kept me as entertained as this one. I couldn't wait to find out what happened between Lynda and Brady after I read "The Lost Manuscript of Martin Taylor Harrison" and "The Final Chapter" didn't let me down. The characters are so hilarious and the banter between Brady and Lynda had me anxious to see if they would eventually end up together. I definitely recommend this to anyone who needs a laugh.

Jackie M. Hopkins spins a lively tale with spicy flavor. "The Horned Toad Prince" is peppered with Spanish words that are easy to understand in context with the story -- but just in case a word proves troublesome, there is a handy Spanish/English dictionary at the end of the book. Does Reba Jo meet her match in the Horned Toad? She's a feisty gal; the toad is as clever as a Texas day is hot. Enjoy!

As I read this book to my first graders they just giggled and giggled. I had their full attention for the entire book. At the end of the story we discussed our favorite part and we decided it was when the horned toad ate the bowl of chili. The illustrations are just wonderful!

This delightful tale by Jackie M. Hopkins will make you laugh out loud! Peppered with Spanish words and phrases, Reba Jo and the Horned Toad's dialogue is absolutely a hoot! Kids of all ages love to hear fractured fairy tales, and I am sure this one will be a favorite. I highly recommend this title and plan to use it in my school library!

Brady Stoner makes me cry when I think of his manly sensitivity to the women in his life. The characters are so real and inspiring, yet great fun too. I'd love to be like Lynda Austin. I understand there's two more books in the series and definitely will be looking for those too!

The Lost Manuscript of Martin Taylor Harrison is one of my favorite books. The other two books in this series are my other favorites. I like this book because it is real. It is about real people with real problems which is a quality sometimes hard to find in books. Love it!

Love it! Love it love it loveit!!!!!!!!!!:

Great book. The book contains some great ideas which are presented in an easy to read manner. The central idea is actually quit simple, but you'd never think of it. This book changed the way I approached performance management systems.

This book provides an amazingly convincing explanation for why employee incentive programs often do more harm than good. It's often because knowledge work is too complicated to benefit from any simple measures.

The core argument of the book uses some mathematical reasoning that will be accessible to anyone who stayed awake through Economics 101. This is illuminating enough, but then Austin continues to add on additional insights.

I've placed this book on my shelf next to The Logic of Failure (Doerner) and Normal Accidents (Perrow). All of these books provide solid scientific arguments for the limits of management.

As a software tester, the most obvious application of the book is as an explanation of exactly when counting defects (found by testers, or introduced by programmers) is likely to lead to trouble.

This book is not - a light read - long - mathematical - about software specific issues and the arcana of that discipline - a cookbook for deciding what to measure, how to measure, how to analyze, how to report

This book describes - the uses of measurement, informational vs motivational - a (increasingly elaborated) measurement model - an objective definition of dysfunction and how it arises because of measurement - a model of "supervision" and how measurement supports (or interferes with) various kinds of supervision - a suggestion about organizational incentives - some strengths & weaknesses of well known assessement systems; e.g., ISO, SEI - the interview method and answers applying the model with 8 well-known writers on software and software management issues.

The messages I got - setting up measurement systems is not easy. There are many pitfalls - picking the goal(s) that the measures will support is critical - picking the measures. Some things are too expensive to measure - deciding how much to spend - deciding what to report to whom - (to my own chagrin) that I had personnally and fully encountered most pitfalls - it's easy for those measured to subvert the measuring - partial measurement may make things worse - informational measurement (measuring and results stay with those measured) is less likely to be subverted - purely economic models are not fully adequate explanations of employee-employer relationships.

This book is nine chapters of mostly biographical information of muslims from west africa who got caught in the north american slave trade. The first two chapters are an overview the muslims and historical accounts. Chapters 3-9 concentrate on the lives of some of the most well known muslims and what others wrote about them.

The reason why I didn't give this book five stars is because of the author's use of Ar-Rahman as if it is Ibrahim 'adurraHmaan's last name. In the muslim faith, it is blasphemous to refer to a person as Ar-RaHmaan or any of the other names of allah (god). This may seem like a small issue to most, but it is a very serious issue because the author is showing his ignorance of Islam and spreading ignorance among the readers who know little or nothing about Islam. The readers of this book will see the casual use of ar-Rahman and think that it's ok to use it for short 'adurraHmaan. Since the author has a Ph.D, I think he should have had knowledgeble muslims read through his book before publication.

Austin's book brings to light an under-examined aspect of African Islam's role in early North America. The short biographical stories of African Muslims have never failed to capture students' imaginations in my classes. A good read and an excellent addition to reading lists for American and African-American History surveys.

It is about time that someone documented with accuracy the origins of some of the earliest Muslims in America. My congratulations to the author, Allan D. Austin.

"City Smart Austin" is an indispensable guide to aculturally-rich and multifaceted city.

Austin natives EleanorS. Morris, Paris Permenter, and John Bigley wisely present the city in six geographic zones. And they cover everything from Austin basics (weather, homes, people, etc) and day trips to recreation areas and where to shop/eat/stay.

Whether they are writing about "BookPeople" (one of the largest bookstores in the U.S.) or the 'Dillo Express (one of the city's laudable forms of public transportation), the authors speak with warmth and home-town credibility.

I was especially pleased with their accessment of Austin's accommodations. Yes, they duly point out the grandeur of the historic Driskill Hotel. But they also note the convenience and affortability of the La Quinta at the Capitol, which not only has a gracious new manager, but renovated "Gold Metal Rooms," which have new decor, 25-inch TVs, and speaker phones!

The book's maps are clear and helpful, with inset-captions for easy referral; and the b&w photos--while a tad too small--are often bright and sharp.

An added treat of "City Smart Austin" are the valuable coupons in the back of the book. Don't miss them!

Like the last reviewer, I too was considering a work-related move to Austin. I wanted a guide book that could give me a quick and easy entry into what Austin had to offer a tourist and potential resident. This guide book gave me a good overview of Austin while I was there -- it wasn't just an index or list of area attractions and businesses: It contained a lot of useful 'tips' interspersed through out the book and the maps were clear and well integrated with the text.

I had some reservations before I bought this because the maps were not in color. However, the maps were clear and concise. Rather than clutter up 1 map with icons for restaurants, attractions, etc., the maps were repeated in each section of the guide, and contained only the relevant data for that section; this made using them very easy. I'd also say that the authors of the book were very generous with the number and variety of maps.

Overall, the design of the book made reading and finding information easy. Good use of bold type made flipping through and finding stuff easy too.

In the end, I got the Austin job and will be moving there soon. As a future Austin resident, I think this will still be the only guide I need.

I am considering a move to Austin and found a lot of useful information in this guidebook. I used it to plan my freetime following a job interview in the city and found it right on target regarding the restaurant reviews. Good buy!

This reprint from the original 1951 Growl Bear by Margot Austin is delightfully illustrated by David McPhail. McPhail's soft illustrations lead the reader to believe that all will be well, despite any doubts that arise while reading the text. Growl Bear cannot communicate his desire to make friends, all the other forest creatures are afraid he will bite them, for all he can do is growl "Gr-r-r-r-r". The little bear attempts to seek help from the wise Old Owl, who misunderstands and makes matters even worse for Growl Bear. Finally, Growl Bear is reduced to tears. Fortunately wise Old Owl lives up to his name and figures out that poor little Growl Bear isn't trying to scare the others with his "Gr-r-r-r-r", but he is just so very little that he hasn't learned to talk yet! And with a happy smile, all is made well. This is a good book for anyone, of any age, who may have a problem with communication.

I really loved this book, not just for children, I thought it was great, too. The storyline was thought-provoking and the illustrations were so cute! Although I bought this book for my niece, I am planning to buy another copy for my own collection of children's animal storybooks. Definitely can recommend this colorful book and the lesson it teaches is a good one as well.

Little Bear seems to have trouble making friends simply because he growls his greetings to them. After a visit to the wise Old Owl, however, his problem gets solved in a very delightful way. This book tells a wonderful story about communication, has beautiful watercolor illustrations and is a terrific read-a-loud for ages 3 to 6.

Charming and innovative are probably the best words to describe Chick Austin, the subject of this biography. It is rare that a mere museum director is the subject of a biography, particularly one as entertaining as this one, but Chick Austin was not the average museum director.

He was schooled early on in European culture by his geneologically ambitious mother, who seemed to spend a great deal of her later years seeking family links, often specious, to European Royalty. He also developed an interest in magic which stayed with him for the majority of his life.

Chick Austin went from indifferent Harvard Student to the director of the Wadsworth Athenium in Hartford in something like 5 years. He brought a great deal of vigor to this, staging the first Baroque (when this art period was unpopular), Picasso, and Dali shows. He also staged Gertrude Stein's opera, Four Saints in Three Acts." All of this was a bit too much for dear old Hartford, who were alternately charmed and shocked by their young art director. Previously the museum had been noted for its collection of colonial furniture, after such an abrupt change it is not too difficult to imagine why. In the process, Austin managed to acquire a large number of Old Masters and Modern works. One of the five Caravaggios in the United States was bought for the museum by Austin toward the end of his tenure.

Austin's other great achievement was the Ringling Museum in Florida. The former Circus tycoon had amassed a large collection of Baroque Art in Florida. Austin not only managed to save many of the paintings from exposure to the elements, but add significantly to the hopdings of the museum by acquiring an 18th century Italian theatre.

Predictably, Austin's efforts brought him into conflict with a variety of old fuddie duddies, from trustees, state legislatures and hack journalists. The unique artistic vision of these cretins is unlikely to be celebrated anytime soon.

While Hartford and the steate of Florida haved physical evidence of Austin's efforts, the entire museum going public has cause to likewise be grateful. With Chick Austin's museums became far less stuffy places,at least in the right hands.

This book is written by the director of the Austin House in Hartford and as such it is likely to the be the most authoritative for years to come.

Chick Austin is a national treasure and what he did for the art scene is truly remarkable. I enjoyed the entire book and reading about how he developed his collection. I am not much of an art history buff and picked this book up during the holidays while visiting my family...I was hooked from the beginning. I am glad I read this.

The author weaves a very interesting and well-organized tale about a fascinating person and an exciting time to be involved in the art world in the United States. Although the substantial footnote section validates the author's detailed and thorough research, I never felt as if the text itself were bogged down with unnecessary or uninteresting detail. I suspect that some readers will note similarities between many of the struggles that Chick Austin faced and similar situations in the contemporary art scene today. This is an excellent book with a great story - I highly recommend it.