Simon & Schuster's Guide to Gems and Precious Stones

and it is a little more technical than the rest (explains things like twinning, establishment of density, calculating specific gravity, cleavage, moh's scale, refractive indices, law of refraction, genesis, cutting, cutting styles etc).it includes gem descriptions in much detail (thou the order in which they are arranged is a mystery to me and really bugs me, as i have to flip and flip until i find what i need).for diamond it includes a table comparing 4 color grading systems used (which is cool).large section on organic gems and synthetics.all in all i see it as a really good (almost) professional level book on gems and precious stones.

This book has a lot of valuable info. Great charts! It can be a little heavy on the technical aspects if your not a gemologist, but if you are studying then this is a great book! Definitely worth having in your library. The quick reference charts in the back are very handy for looking up which RI goes with which colored stones, includes hardness and SG. nice book

This book is detailed with pictures & easy to understand explanations. It's your go to book to find details precious stones & it's very handy. It's a keeper

The shipping was pretty quick, sooner than the 10 days, as advertised, which made me very happy! The book was a little more worn than what was advertised and an older copy, but it does a lot of clear, beautiful pictures and is has a load of information, about gemstones. I am hoping to get a more updated gem book and one that shows them in rough quality.

Found this book to be very helpful in identifying various gemstones. I have a lot of gemstones that I'm trying to identify. No only does it help identify gemstones, it has a lot of information about them, such as meanings, origin, etc. Would highly recommend it.

Went to a gem show and saw that many folks had this book. Made a mistake and bought it here. I had a MUCH MUCH better book titled Gemstones by Cally Hall. The Simon and Schuster book has fascinating sections on how artificial gems are made and such like info (Doesn't include Moissanite.). However, it does not have any info on many many gemstones readily available today, such as Sphene, Sunstone (state gem of Oregon I'm told)and many others. (You can find these in the Simon and Schuster Rocks and Minerals book). If you are only interested in the mainstream gemstones, this book has them. However, as compared to the Cally Hall book, the info is not as well organized nor are the pictures (though mostly very nice) as useful. I will use this as a backup reference book.

Very detailed book I liked the book. 12 year old son found to be too detailed and wished it had more pictures

This book is very informative and helps me out a lot when I run across stones that I am not sure of the identification of. I would recommend it to anybody who likes rocks and wants to learn more.