When Top Chef judge Gail Simmons first graduated from college, she felt hopelessly lost. All her friends were going to graduate school, business school, law school . . . but what was she going to do? Fortunately, a family friend gave her some invaluable advice-make a list of what you love to do, and let that be your guide. Gail wrote down four words: Eat. Write. Travel. Cook. Little did she know, those four words would become the basis for a career as a professional eater, cook, food critic, magazine editor, and television star. Today, she's the host of Top Chef: Just Desserts, permanent judge on Top Chef, and Special Projects Director at Food & Wine magazine. She travels all over the world, eats extraordinary food, and meets fascinating people. She's living the dream that so many of us who love to cook and eat can only imagine. But how did she get there? Talking with My Mouth Full follows her unusual and inspiring path to success, step-by-step and bite-by-bite. It takes the reader from her early years, growing up in a household where her mother ran a small cooking school, her father made his own wine, and family vacation destinations included Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East; through her adventures at culinary school in New York City and training as an apprentice in two of New York's most acclaimed kitchens; and on to her time spent assisting Vogue's legendary food critic Jeffrey Steingarten, working for renowned chef Daniel Boulud, and ultimately landing her current jobs at Food & Wine and on Top Chef. The book is a tribute to the incredible meals and mentors she's had along the way, examining the somewhat unconventional but always satisfying journey she has taken in order to create a career that didn't even exist when she first started working toward it. With memorable stories about the greatest (and worst) dishes she's eaten, childhood and behind-the-scenes photos, and recipes from Gail's family and her own kitchen, Talking with My Mouth Full is a true treat.

The original winners of The Next Food Network Star bring their signature style of casual entertaining to their first book. These Hearty Boys don't solve literary mysteries, but they sure are great at demystifying party-throwing. Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh are two guys who never attended culinary school yet build one of Chicago's most popular catering businesses, and now run the popular restaurant Hearty. Their self-deprecating, natural approach to cooking, which made them such a hit on the Food Network, comes through on every page. Packed with exciting but accessible recipes, clever how-to tips, and a gaggle of tales from the catering trenches, this is a truly entertaining guide to the art of entertaining. Featured recipes include hors d'oeuvres, starters, main dishes, side dishes, desserts, and libations. Nibble on Gorgonzola, Fig, and Pecan Cheese Terrine, or pass Seared Ahi on Wonton Crisps. Or sit down to enjoy Balsamic Mushroom Chicken and Oven-roasted Root Veggies, and finish the meal with Chocolate Cream Cheese Cupcakes. Talk with Your Mouth Full offers help on everything from chilling wine to decorating a buffet table, as well as complete menus and planning advice. It's the ultimate guide to enjoying good food and good company.

In every culture, there are guidelines as to what is most appropriate and what actions need to be avoided. This also holds true for the Deaf community and the hard of hearing population. In Dont Talk with Your Mouth Full, author Dr. Marie LaBozzetta Laurino provides a host of dos and donts when learning to become a signer, communicator, or interpreter. Laurino presents helpful tips, motivational moments, and facts related to deafness, such as the importance of respecting the culture and the community; practicing; learning the languages history; using signs correctly; finding a mentor; remembering to breathe. Dont Talk with Your Mouth Full provides advice, aphorisms, and encouragement appropriate for both the occasional signer and the American Sign Language interpreter. Praise for Dont Talk with Your Mouth Full Finally, an easy reference to answer ninety-nine questions I get all the time when people ask me about sign language. These are truisms that are as useful today asthey were twenty years ago and will still be useful twenty years from now. Jerry L. Conner, certified, Florida

Talk Triggers is the definitive, practical guide on how to use bold operational differentiators to create customer conversations, written by best-selling authors and marketing experts Jay Baer and Daniel Lemin. Word of mouth is directly responsible for 19% of all purchases, and influences as much as 90%. Every human on earth relies on word of mouth to make buying decisions. Yet even today, fewer than 1% of companies have an actual strategy for generating these crucial customer conversations. Talk Triggers provides that strategy in a compelling, relevant, timely book that can be put into practice immediately, by any business. The key to activating customer chatter is the realization that same is lame. Nobody says "let me tell you about this perfectly adequate experience I had last night." The strategic, operational differentiator is what gives customers something to tell a story about. Companies (including the 30+ profiled in Talk Triggers) must dare to be different and exceed expectations in one or more palpable ways. That's when word of mouth becomes involuntary: the customers of these businesses simply MUST tell someone else. Talk Triggers contains: Proprietary research into why and how customers talk More than 30 detailed case studies of extraordinary results from Doubletree Hotels by Hilton and their warm cookie upon arrival, The Cheesecake Factory and their giant menu, Five Guys Burgers and their extra fries in the bag, Penn & Teller and their nightly meet and greet sessions, and a host of delightful small businesses The 4-5-6 learning system (the 4 requirements for a differentiator to be a talk trigger; the 5 types of talk triggers; and the 6-step process for creating talk triggers) Surprises in the text that are (of course) word of mouth propellants Consumers are wired to discuss what is different, and ignore what is average. Talk Triggers not only dares the reader to differentiate, it includes the precise formula for doing it. Combining compelling stories, inspirational examples, and practical how-to, Talk Triggers is the first indispensable book about word of mouth. It's a book that will create conversation about the power of conversation.