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Books to read if you're planning a vacation in "Dickson", sorted by average review score:

Dickson New Analytical Study Bible
Published in Hardcover by World Bible Pub Co (May, 1985)
Author: World Bible Publishing
Average review score:

Opening the Word of God
This is one of the best bibles I have ever owned (I have about 10 different study bibles) It help you to bring all the various scripture to bear on a particular issue you are studing, without pushing you in the direction the preparer wants you to go. It lets the Bible speak for itself.

Great Study Bible
I would recommend this study Bible for every Christian. It is, along with the Thompson Chain Reference, the best general study Bible on the market. It will help the believer to dig into the Word on their own. It has the best outlines of all the books I have seen. Though I too use some specialty Bibles too many general Study Bibles, i.e the NIV Study, are so crammed with notes the reader can become distracted. The tools available in this edition of the KJV are there to help us think and understand on our own. Get a notebook, a pencil, and a willing heart and let the Spirit use this Bible in your life.

The Best There Is!
I've been using the Dickson Study Bible since 1979. I have found it very helpful in my study of the word. The notes, annotations, charts, introductions, etc., are the finest I have found in any study bible. Its a hard to find item and well worth the investment for years of service and profitable study of God's Precious Word.


Unit Pride
Published in Paperback by Bantam Books (July, 1982)
Authors: John McAleer, Dickson McAleer, and Billy Dickson
Average review score:

an emotional wonder
I first read this book about 15 years ago, it is one of those rare books that stick with you. I can still recall the wonders that it brought to me, the excitement, and the sadness. It is a story of two friends in the Korean war, written in a time when the Vietnam experiance far overshadowed the war in Korea. It may not be the most complex of stories, but it is one that you will not forget for a long time

Excellent book - it will stay with you!
I read this book about 13 years ago and I have not ever been able to forget it. I lost my copy over the years and I am always searching for another. It is a very interesting look at war through the eyes of two people who lived it. I definitely recommend this to most people because it offers many individual things to each reader.

This book defined my own character!
I read this book in high school, and many times since. To my horror, my only copy was lost, and I desperatly want another. Billy and Dewey are friends like I made during the Gulf War...bonded closer than brothers. John McAleer, weaves such a rich tapestry, you feel like they are your friends too.


The Dragon Knight
Published in Mass Market Paperback by Tor Books (November, 1991)
Author: Gordon R. Dickson
Average review score:

Another great read of mid-evil battle
This is another good book in the dragon series. If you liked the first you will surely like this one. The one disappointment I had with this book was that it leads you to believe there is much magic involved with the plot. However, in the final grudge there is really no magic but more strategy and war than any magic battle. The final ending does bring you back up to speed with an unsusspected surprise. Once again the mid-evil thriiler will grab you in the end and bring you back to the next book in the series.

A great book with a real view on medival life plus magic
This book is very exciting and does a good job how life was probably like in the middle ages, but it also has alot of suspence and action, and alot of times when you can't help to wonder how Jim(aka the Dragon Knight) can get out of his situation. It also has the interesing twist of comedy that makes you laugh every once and a while. This was a very good book but, I still like The Dragon and the George, better then this one, but they are both pretty simular. Never the less, this is a great book and I recomend it

An incredible story full of magic and adventure!
This incredible book takes the best characteristics of a fantasy book and mixes them with a very particular way of seing every-day life during the Middle Ages. The author narrates the story with the fine humour that we see in all his work, capturing the reader with the crazy situations in which Jim and Brian are involved and trying to show us how beautiful and horrible can a life surrounded by magic and by unusual things can be. An excellent book full of magic, fantasy and optimism that any reader will enjoy a great deal!!!


The New Dickson Baseball Dictionary
Published in Paperback by Harvest Books (February, 1999)
Author: Paul Dickson
Average review score:

Great Book !
This is a book that you'll love. There's a lot of things to learn in it and some terms you probably can't listen anymore. A perfect book for a really baseball fan !

Clear, Concise, Helpful
This baseball dictionary is clear, concise and helpful, particularly for people like me. I love baseball, but when I was growing up, girls weren't raised on sports, so I became a fan with sketchy knowledge of the rules and nuances of the game. Since I bought this book, I've learned a lot about pitching maneuvers, stats, history of the sport, slang terms and dozens of other things that make baseball more and more interesting to watch. I'm very glad I own it.

A must have for the serious baseball fan!
In baseball, what is a crackerjack? A cradle? A drawing Card? Feel the apple means what? What happens when you go to the pump? Who made up Murderers' Row? Open the New Dickson Baseball Dictionary and you'll find out.

This A to Z complete listing of baseball term is about the best book on the subject there is. Paul Dickson has put together over 570 pages of facts, terms, definitions and trivia that are sure to please every baseball fan.

Filled with over 100 photos and illustrations you are sure to find just about every baseball word you can think of. Also included are a thesaurus, a section of abbreviations and a fully annotated bibliography.

The baseball purest is sure to love this book as a gift, and it is priced to meet most budgets. Overall this book is great reading and makes the perfect handy reference book!


Celebrating 70: Mark Mcgwire's Historic Season
Published in Paperback by Sporting News (November, 1998)
Authors: Bernie Miklasz, Ron Smith, Mike Eisenbath, Dave Kindred, Jack Buck, Albert Dickson, and The Sporting News
Average review score:

Mark McGwire's 70 Comes Alive!
Relive Mark McGwire's historic 1998 assault on the single season home run record with this magnificent book overflowing with full-color photos and amusing anecdotes. "Celebrating 70" charts the slugger's season, home run for home run, and features a bevy of information - complete with pictures - including the date of each long ball, the distance, and which pitcher was christened with the dubious distinction of yielding one of Big Mac's clouts! Along the way, you can read a brief summary for each game McGwire applied his trade. The pictures have been well chosen, conveying the emotion of each moment. The text matches the shear exuberance of the images, and Jack Buck's forward is simply splendid.

Outstanding!
The 1998 baseball season was truly one of the most magic in recenty years, thanks in part to the "home run battle" between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. This book chronicles their achievement which I suspect will grow to legendary tones in the years to come. The sportmanship between these two hereos was evident all season long, and the book reflects that.

Perhaps it was fitting that McGwire should wind up in a city that is a true "baseball town," and one that could truly love and cherish his accomplishment. I remember watching the game on TV where McGwire broke Babe Ruth's home regular season home run record and even the Cub players stood and applauded him. This book remembers that.

It starts off with pictures of McGwire and a nice foreword by Jack Buck, the longtime St. Louis Cardinals' broadcaster. There's also a brief story about Maris and Ruth, the men McGwire chased for most of that long summer. And then the home runs. Each page is devoted to a description of each one; the date, the opposing pitcher, the final score and so on.

Reading through each page brought back all those wonderful memories of the 1998 season for me. This book is a wonderful treasure and keepsake to celebrate an incredible baseball season by one man.

Celebrating 70 is historic
For the strongman from Pomona, California playing for the St. Louis Cardinals, the Summer of '98 was one long victory parade. A reminder of seasons past & a celebration of baseball future. He became a national hero & role model with class. He gave baseball back its luster. In this large, glossy, colorful homage to one fabulous boy of summer - the team of writers, photographers, designers & editors has given us a memorable, collectible, hit-by-hit, play-by-play story of a modern grand adventure. What a gift!


The Dragon and the Fair Maid of Kent
Published in Mass Market Paperback by Tor Books (September, 2001)
Author: Gordon R. Dickson
Average review score:

Historical Fantasy
A fantasy set during the time of King Edward III, it is a complex tale involving magicians, dragons, goblins, the plague, and court intrigue. The author has invented history only casually related to real history. Overall, it is an interesting story but sometimes drags in long scenes which may seem peripheral to the main plot. Joan, the Fair Maid of Kent, puts in an appearance in a secondary role. It seems unlikely that Edward III would have had an illegitimate half-brother as his father, Edward II, was gay and not known to have mistresses. The real power behind the throne was the Black Prince's younger brother, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (events would eventually lead to the War of the Roses between the Houses of York and Lancaster).

The author oversimplifies the relationship between Joan, the Fair Maid of Kent, and Edward, the Black Prince, by calling them cousins. Joan's father, Edmund, was both a half brother of Edward II and a cousin of Edward II's wife, Isobel of France (who contrary to the motion picture, never had any contact with Wallace). A grand-daughter of Joan and Sir Thomas Holland would marry John Beaufort, a nephew of Edward the Black Prince, and a daughter of that marriage would later marry King James I of Scotland with descent to the present royal family.

Re: Welcome Back to the Middle Ages. - Oct. 17 2001
I just wanted to let it be known that The Dragon and the Fair Maid of Kent, is not, as stated by Marc Ruby in his Oct. 17 review, the fourth book in Gordon Dickson's Dragon Knight Series.

It is actually the NINTH book in the series. It may only appear to be the fourth due to the fact that Tor only included in the list of previous books those which had been published by Tor. The rest of the series was published by Ace Fantasy, with the exception of the very first book, The Dragon and the George, which was published by Del Rey in 1976.

Essentially, I just didn't want anyone to miss any of the books out of this wonderful series. Happy reading!

Welcome Back to the Middle Ages.
By habit I read more than one book at a time. It keeps me from getting bored, and sometimes the odd juxtaposition of ideas gives me something unique for a review. Right now I'm reading a horror story so bad I regret agreeing to review it and a mystery story that makes too great an effort to be literature. It's slow going at best. The third volume is (or rather, was) this, Gordon Dickson's fourth in his dragon series. It took me exactly three days to read this hefty (500+ page) small print book from cover to cover, and I am not a speed reader. The other books just had to wait.

What makes Dickson so good that he has managed to author two major series (the dragon series and the Dorsai series) and innumerable other novels and collections? Personally I would call it superior plot making, intense dedication to details, and yes, heaps of talent. Dickson always takes the necessary time to draw his characters out fully, be they James Eckhart the knight/apprentice mage/sometimes dragon who is the hero of the story or the lowly master carpenter who keeps James in everything from chairs to outhouses. And he goes to know end of trouble to make sure that the reader painlessly acquires enough 14th century lore to make sense out of the goings on.

This volume finds James at Malencontri, his castle, trying to cope with both a plague of Plantagenet nobility and the very real plague which is advancing into James part of England. In addition, Carolinus, James mage master (one of the three AAA+ mages in the world, he'll have you know) is insisting that the King be protected at all costs. The Plantagenets on hand are Prince Edward the Fourth, the king's son and the beautiful Countess Joan, the Fair Maid of Kent. All they want is James assistance in a plot to make Edward the Third fond of Edward the Fourth again. This plot becomes ever more complicated until James finds himself commanded to appear before the King at Tiverton, where Edward III has retired to avoid the plague in London.

While this complexity develops James works overtime to prepare Malencontri against the plague. Since James and his wife Angie are actually visitors from our time who were unexpectedly thrust into the 14th century of an alternate earth, they know something of germs and disease protection. Since magic will not work on diseases, it is this knowledge which it their only hope. In the midst of all this confusion and stress, the EcKharts, their closest friends and Hob (the castle hobgoblin) are off to Tiverton to see the King.

Thanks to Hob, James is able to discover that an evil plot is afoot at Tiverton. Goblins, who are spreading the plague in order to take over the world, have slain the real castle staff and are now running it in disguise. James, due to his commitment to keep the king alive, goes into action. Since this is less that a third of the way into the book, it should be no surprise that Jim manages to use a small handful of men and knights (plus the unstoppable Hob and his buddy the hob of Tiverton) to completely mop up the Goblins and airlift everyone to Malencontri. Unfortunately James comes down with both the plague and magickal exhaustion simultaneously. Does he survive? Of course! Does he spend the rest of the book frantically trying to save Malencontri and the rest of England? You bet, but I will leave the rest of the plot for the reader to discover.

With this, fourth, volume in the series, it is getting a bit harder to simply pick up a volume and follow along. First of all you keep getting the feeling that you have missed several really good books, which you have. Secondly, there is simply too much background after three solid novels to present enough information to the reader. This isn't all bad though, you will get to read several very good fantasy tales. And if you do wind up reading it first, you will still love it enough to come back to read a second time. Highly recommended.


The Judas Window
Published in Paperback by International Polygonics, Ltd. (June, 1987)
Author: Carter Dickson
Average review score:

Classic detection and the best courtroom drama ever
Jimmy Answell is summoned for an audience with Avory Hume. The two men are later discovered after witnesses break into Hume's study - a room with bolted steel shutters and a heavy door locked on the inside. Answell is found lying unconscious and Hume stabbed to death with an arrow. How can young Answell but be guilty? How could Sir Henry Merrivale (H.M.!) be foolhardy enough to undertake his defence at the Old Bailey? And what is the 'Judas Window' to which H.M. keeps alluding?

This is John Dickson Carr (aka Carter Dickson), the acknowledged master of the locked room mystery, in top form. The quality of the puzzle in The Judas Window is superior to that in The Three Coffins (popularly regarded as Carr's best book and the most famous locked room murder mystery). The case unfolds through the medium of a riveting courtroom drama that simply ought to have been filmed. The comic touches provided by H.M. as defence counsel are terrific. And the modus operandi of the crime is stunning in its simplicity and the conviction it carries. Less convincing however (and this is what makes the book stop just short of perfection) is the murderer's motive. But this flaw makes only a ripple in the overall masterly construction of the mystery.

Don't miss it!

Locked Room Classic
Carter Dickson (also known as John Dickson Carr) created another wonderful golden age locked room mystery in his novel, The Judas Window. Sir Henry Marrivale is the sleuth and he is, as always, a dependable joy. The author has surrounded him with an able cast of supporting characters to help nudge the story along. The triumph, of course, and the reason for this book's existence is the locked room crime. Carter Dickson knows how to tease the mystery and drama out of this glorious cliche, making it seem fresh and new. This is a classic from a thrilling time in mystery writing by a true master of the form. Not to be missed.

Nearly perfect locked room mystery
Dickson and John Dickson Carr are the same. He specialized in Locked Room mysteries. In various polls in mystery mags he always ends up at the top of locked room mysteries. I like this the best of his novels, but the Hollw Man (under Carr) is usually considered the best. His short story "The House in Goblin Wood" is I think even better -- simply the best locked room story ever.

Other writers to look for in locked rooms: Clayton Rawson, Ellery Queen (sometimes a locked room).

Ishould point out that as a novel aside from the puzzle its not very interesting. You read these things for the mystery and the detective!


The Two Fat Ladies Full Throttle
Published in Hardcover by Clarkson N. Potter (April, 1999)
Authors: Jennifer Paterson, Clarissa Dickson Wright, Clarissa Dickson Wright, and Patricia Llewellyn
Average review score:

British cookery at its best
Classic British cuisine for the modern world. Baroque indulgence as opposed to lean, mean, designer fare. Something for everyone, from the experienced cook to the beginner. Served up in a very witty style.

For those who can't cook and would like to impress their friends, not to worry - just whip up some Cosmopolitan cocktails (vodka, cranberry juice, lime juice ...mmmmmmm) and Welsh Rarebit Souffles (gourmet version of cheese on toast) with salad on the side. If you can't manage those, I suggest cooking classes.

Intermediate and experienced cooks will find many recipes for soups, fish, fowl, meat and game and vegetable sides which are also easy to adjust to one's own taste. I myself don't follow all the recipes slavishly but use them for inspiration, tweaking a bit here and there to suit available ingredients and personal taste. In addition, there are a few rabbit recipes, which I found useful - organic rabbit meat has just become available in my town.

There is something for every occasion, from leek soup to trout in a good French rose (the wine). For every budget as well - from cheap fish and cuts to pheasant and salmon.

For the cutting edge postmodernist cook, I suggest Fragomammella (Strawberry Breasts), taken from the Italian Futurist Cookbook and Penis Stew (apparently an old Orthodox Jewish recipe).

The core of the book is classic British cuisine (Beef Wellington and grouse anyone?) with a world twist - a touch of the medieval and Elizabethan, India, Singapore, Spain, Russia, I can't count the countries that inspire some of the recipes. If you don't fancy British, there is a good recipe for Singapore Prawns with Bugis Street Sauce. Lots of down to earth recipes as well as haute cuisine fare - tripe and onions, the classic tomato tart, even an American inspired Strawberry Shortcake.

I myself am weak on desserts but Plum Kuchen looks yummy and not to difficult to attempt. Chocolate souffle is included for those more classically minded.

In my humble opinion - a Desert Island Keeper of a cookbook.

Two "Phat" Ladies!
Okay, off on yet another one of my anglophillic, praise-ridden reviews, but sometimes, or even very often, British entertainment is just miles and miles more evolved, and less consumed with the shallow crap, we Americans tend to be consumed with. (I guess I'm speaking more about the Two Fat Ladies Cooking Show on Food Network than this book.)
Here are two hefty and darling women, cooking and meandering through England, making hearty, stick-to-your ribs dishes. Yum. Okay, I have to draw the line at the Penis stew, but for the most part, wonderful recipes to inspire any chef.

Inspirational recipes
When my beloved and I want to cook something special -- one of our favorite hobbies -- we check out the Two Fat Ladies' cookbooks. (I recommend their previous two books, too). I love the stories and explanations that preceed the recipes -- they add depth and luster. I can't read the book for very long without feeling hungry. Their recipes are forgiving, leaving plenty of room for adaptation if you can't find an ingredient indiginous to England. Don't miss watching their series on the Food Network.


Bleak House
Published in Audio Cassette by Cover to Cover Cassettes Ltd (February, 1998)
Authors: Charles Dickens and Hugh Dickson
Average review score:

Nothing bleak about this...
After years without picking up a novel by Dickens (memories of starchy classes at school), I decided to plunge into "Bleak House", a novel that had been sitting on my bookshelf for about ten years, waiting to be read. Although I found it heavy going at first, mainly because the style is so unfamiliar to modern readers, after about ten pages I was swept up and carried off, unable to put the hefty tome down until I had finished it. This book is a definite classic. The sheer scope of the tale, the wit of the satire (which could still be applied to many legal proceedings today) and the believable characters gripped me up until the magnificent conclusion. One particularly striking thing is the "cinematic" aspect of certain chapters as they switch between different angles, building up to a pitch that leaves the reader breathless. I can't recommend "Bleak House" too highly. And I won't wait so long before reading more Dickens novels.

Magnificent House.
This is the second book by Dickens I have read so far, but it will not be the last. "Bleak House" is long, tightly plotted, wonderfully descriptive, and full of memorable characters. Dickens has written a vast story centered on the Jarndyce inheritance, and masterly manages the switches between third person omniscient narrator and first person limited narrator. His main character Esther never quite convinces me of her all-around goodness, but the novel is so well-written that I just took Esther as she was described and ran along with the story. In this book a poor boy (Jo) will be literally chased from places of refuge and thus provide Dickens with one of his most powerful ways to indict a system that was particularly cruel to children. Mr. Skimpole, pretending not to be interested in money; Mr. Jarndyce, generous and good; Richard, stupid and blind; the memorable Dedlocks, and My Lady Dedlock's secret being uncovered by the sinister Mr. Tulkinghorn; Mrs. Jellyby and her telescopic philanthropy; the Ironmaster described in Chapter 28, presenting quite a different view of industralization than that shown by Dickens in his next work, "Hard Times." Here is a veritable cosmos of people, neighbors, friends, enemies, lovers, rivals, sinners, and saints, and Dickens proves himself a true master at describing their lives and the environment they dwell in. There are landmark chapters: Chapter One must be the best description of a dismal city under attack by dismal weather and tightly tied by perfectly dismal laws, where the Lord Chancellor sits eternally in Lincoln's Inn Hall. Chapter 32 has one of the eeriest scenes ever written, with suspicious smoke, greasy and reeking, as a prelude to a grisly discovery. Chapter 47 is when Jo cannot "move along" anymore. This Norton Critical is perhaps the best edition of "Bleak House" so far: the footnotes help a lot, and the two Introductions are key to understanding the Law system at the time the action takes place, plus Dickens' interest in this particular topic. To round everything off, read also the criticism of our contemporaries, as well as that of Dickens' time. "Bleak House" is a long, complex novel that opens a window for us to another world. It is never boring and, appearances to the contrary, is not bleak. Enjoy.

Deep, dark, delicious Dickens!
"There is little to be satisfied in reading this book"?? I couldn't disagree more. Bleak House left a profound impression on me, and was so utterly satisfying a reading experience that I wanted it never to end. I've read it twice over the years and look forward to reading it again. Definitely my favorite novel.

I don't know what the previous reviewer's demands are when reading a novel, but mine are these: the story must create its world - whatever and wherever that world might be - and make me BELIEVE it. If the novelist cannot create that world in my mind, and convince me of its truths, they've wasted my time (style doesn't matter - it can be clean and spare like Orwell or verbose like Dickens, because any style can work in the hands of someone who knows how to use it). Many novels fail this test, but Bleak House is not one of them.

Bleak House succeeds in creating a wonderfully dark and complex spider web of a world. On the surface it's unfamiliar: Victorian London and the court of Chancery - obviously no one alive today knows that world first hand. And yet as you read it you know it to be real: the deviousness, the longing, the secrets, the bureaucracy, the overblown egos, the unfairness of it all. Wait a minute... could that be because all those things still exist today?

But it's not all doom and gloom. It also has Dickens's many shades of humor: silliness, word play, comic dialogue, preposterous characters with mocking names, and of course a constant satirical edge. It also has anger and passion and tenderness.

I will grant one thing: if you don't love reading enough to get into the flow of Dickens's sentences, you'll probably feel like the previous reviewer that "...it goes on and on, in interminable detail and description...". It's a different dance rhythm folks, but well worth getting used to. If you have to, work your way up to it. Don't start with a biggie like Bleak House, start with one of his wonderful short pieces such as A Christmas Carol.

Dickens was a gifted storyteller and Bleak House is his masterpiece. If you love to dive into a book, read and enjoy this gem!


Time Storm
Published in Paperback by Bantam Books (April, 1985)
Author: Gordon R. Dickson
Average review score:

Great Book
I read this book over a year ago and the story is still with me. I learned a lot about the Johnstown flood through this book and the related book "Emerald Storm". This story was told with a lot of imagination. Time travel, to be exact. The only reason this book did not earn five stars from me is because like all of Alsobrook's books, the love scenes, while nice, were somewhat flowery. But the book remains on my keeper shelf. I would recommend this book, if you can find it as it is out of print. The review below was misplaced and belongs with another book with the same name. I checked the reviews of that book and found a review that belongs to Alsobrook there.

Intriguing...
I spent a lot of time searching for this book, after reading Emerald Storm, also from Rosalyn Alsobrook. I was a little uneasy about reading, due to the conclusion of the previous book, but the author is an excellent writer that draws you into the storyline with ease. Both books are excellent, and highly recommended. The author used many of the real characters from the actual Johnstown flood event in both stories, so you learn a little about the history of the flood as well. The details of what others may have felt, heard, or saw during this event in different scenarios are quite fascinating to read about, but tragic in itself. Adding the time travel and romance to an already intriguing topic, just adds to the magical element in this story. The characters are wonderfully portrayed in the author's words... and easily draws you into her fascinating imagination.

As Joann struggles to find herself in the 1990's or 1889 times, you'll feel the pull to both times, and experience her uneasiness regarding either decision she must ultimately make.

I'm a huge fan of writers who study and create stories within true historical events, and provide historical facts as well. Rosalyn Alsobrook did a wonderful job with this book, and has increased my desire to learn more about the Johnstown flood event in 1889.

If you enjoy a writer that creates stories of this historical nature, I'd also recommend anything from Dorothy Garlock. Both these authors create stories that the historical romance reader shouldn't miss.

At long Last!!
I have been searching and searching for this book, and after all this time I got it! Let me tell you, it was well worth the wait. This book has so much to offer a reader. A truly delightful read. The storyline and the characters were great. At first I thought it was going to be sad because a previous novel by Alsobrook concerning the Johnstown Flood, but it was mild compared to that particular story/novel. Even though it was a little sad it was a well written novel that many Alsobrook fan will love. Another lovely read!


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