Dodge Reviews

This book brings to light the latest research in how kids learn best. It gives parents an idea of how to encourage teachers to incorporate the newest strategies without being confrontational. It shows teachers how to implement the findings into their curriculum and gives lists of possible questions parents may (should) ask. It also gives parents a checklist of what the classroom should look like, how the teacher should be with the children, etc. Finally a book on every child's side. Years of research have proven that children have different learning styles and teachers need to address that. As a mother and teacher, I will be using this book constantly as one of my greatest sources.

As both a "fan" of astrology and numerology, this is by far the best book on detailing someone's personality just by the day they were born. It gives specific "details" that are somewhat eerie.....just check out the dates for people close to you as well and you will not believe it. A few of the things I read were a bit unsettling, but a MUST read.

Once again the Zagat guide is jam-packed with great information for visitors and locals alike. Honest reviews give you a chance to make intelligent and informed decisions without advertising or hype

This was a very popular novel of 1896, and is considered by many to be a literary classic. Theron Ware enters the scene as a small town Methodist Minister. He and his wife seem to be humble folk and settle into a small house near his church. Soon he meets a Catholic priest, an atheist physician, and a beautiful Irish lass. They make quite an impression on him. They are sophisticated, well educated, and quite worldly. Alas, they are such a strong influence on him that he starts playing the worldly role, and begins to look down on his job and his religion. He also finds himself strongly attracted to the lovely Celia Madden. I should mention that in those days the Irish were assigned to the caste of untouchables.

Theron acts as if he is now a man of the world, although he knows nothing of the literature, music, and philosophy discussed by others. He becomes a boring, mean minded buffoon. The book continues with his steady degradation, a preacher who has become a victim of that secular humanism that our current day fundamentalists complain so much about.

The novel provides an interesting view of religion and culture of the late 1800s. It was somewhat difficult for me to understand how such a seemingly pious man could turn into such a churlish fellow. Perhaps his upbringing was quite religiously strict, and he developed a strong reaction formation to it all.

Over 20 years working as a bookseller, this is the novel I would most often recommend to customers who were seeking a truly entertaining out-of-the-ordinary novel. I've read it three times now, and am looking forward to a fourth in the next year or so. The main characters are fresh and utterly believable and they are surrounded by a fine cast of eccentrics. Frederic is a exceptionally visual writer. This book would make a fabulous movie.

I found this book on my father's bookshelf and brought it home to read. I'm not sure why I picked it--nothing about the title or description excited me too much, so it sat on my own bookshelf forgotten for several months. Finally, hurriedly getting ready for a vacation I needed a book to read and found Theron Ware. I loved it so much that I went right out and bought my own copy. I recommended it to my 21 year old son and he loved it too. One caution though, do NOT read the introduction first--it gives the entire plot away. Save it for after when you can savor the analysis.

Dodge died over 100 years ago, yet this book is still found for sale in many book stores and, of course, on Amazon.com. That simple truth tells you more about this book then my review could hope too. Great books survive, bad ones are forgetten.

Of course, since I only gave this book four stars, I don't necessarily think it is great. It is a good book, easy to read and clear on the details. Since it was written long ago, the clearness of its script, thus, seems even more remarkable.

In Hannibal, Dodge details Hannibal's war with Rome, often referred to as the Second Punic War. (The first fought by his father, the second came some time (30 years?) afterwards.) Most historians have heard of Hannibal and the general outline of this war. Dodge gives great detail based on (1) his own war experience during America's Civil War (2) his own travels of the countries involved in this war and (3) his readings of the older texts.

Each chapter begins with a one page summary, followed by the details of each event listed. Skip the summaries, and you might enjoy the book more, otherwise, its seems repetitive, because it just was.

Dodge also talks alot about "glory" and honor. It is strange to hear such comments from a American Civil War veteran. Not that that war didn't have its share of both, but that the American Civil War is often thought of one of the first "modern wars" where bravery was important but machines made more difference. The truth is different. Brave men have always, and will always be the key difference between success or failure in any venture.

The keen interest of Hannibal's times is that, in part, with so fewer machines or men, it was easier for a great man to make even more of an impact. Hannibal was that man. A man who almost changed the direction of the world from a Roman Empire to a Carthigian one. Dodge's insights and honesty, worth reading 100 years after his death, will have relevence for most historians for at least 100 years to come.

Theodore Dodge is one of those historians whose undying patience produces works of incredible depth. In this work Dodge recounts in great detail the successes and frustrations of one of the greatest military minds the world has ever known. Hannibal is the essence of the cool reserved commander, calculating every move and ready for every contingency. The sheer size of Hannibal's undertaking is unbelievable. To the modern mind the logistical aspects alone are enough to dismiss the idea immediately. Yet for Hannibal it was a real and attainable goal. Such a confidence and vision is very rare indeed.

In this book Dodge provides a detailed account of Hannibal's exploits throughout the second punic war. Some background information on both the Romans and Carthaginians is provided to place the war into context. As in all of Dodge's work countless illustrations are provided. What really makes this book unique is that Dodge personally visited the regions in question, interviewing locals and studying the probable landscape of the great battles. The wealth of information gleaned from such an excursion provides the book with added details that enhance the realism of the account.

However, I do disagree with one point repeatedly made by Dodge which requires me giving only four stars. In the book Scipio Africanus is decidedly demeaned. Dodge seems to go out of his way to discount the exploits of this great Roman general and repeatedly states that "good fortune" is the only reason Scipio accomplished what he did. For me this tarnished the work considerably. Hannibal's reputation is safe from harm without Dodge going out of his way to belittle the man who defeated him at Zama. Hannibal needs no such protection because his exploits speak for themselves. Dodge is usually fairly objective with any opinions presented based on fairly logical conclusions. In this instance the bias was a little to thick to swallow. I recommend reading B.H. Liddell Hart's "Scipio Africanus: Greater Than Napoleon" for a view contrary to that presented by Dodge.

Overall I found this book to be excellent. Dodge's work reads surprisingly well for being a hundred years old. He provides a very insightful view of Hannibal and what he accomplished and struggled with in this book and it would be a good addition to any library.

Dodge's book was written over a hundred years ago. The author has traveled around the battlefields of the second Punic War and tried to work out from the existing historical sources what really happened. Dodge was an army officer who served in the American Civil War. As such he knows the difficulty of moving large bodies of men, of supplying them with food, the difficulties of feeding horses and keeping them in good condition.

The book establishes the greatness of Hannibal. Very little is left to tell us much of what Carthaginian civilization was like. Coins and sculpture suggest that the Greeks heavily influenced it. We know that Carthage was an oligarchy and that it was a city that traded extensively.

It seems that it was probably a city that depended on slavery to produce its agricultural produce. This led to Rome having a pronounced advantage in the conflicts between the two cities. Rome had a sizeable peasant class who were integrated into its civil life. The Roman peasant class formed the basis of its armies. Rome as well had built up a coalition of allied cities some of which shared the benefits of citizenship. This meant that in any conflict Rome was able to put in the field 750,000 soldiers. In addition it had considerable economic power. Thus in the first Punic war Rome was able to build a number of fleets to challenge the Carthaginians at sea. The Carthaginians did not have a large class of landed peasants who could be mobilized and they depended on mercenary armies. The history of Carthage prior to their first war with Rome was not a history of military brilliance. Carthage had considerable problems in maintaining their control over about a third of Sicily fighting a large number of wars with the Greek city of Syracuse.

Rome in addition to being able to raise large numbers of men had developed a superior military unit. The predominant military unit prior to the rise of Rome was an infantry formation called he phalanx. This was a Greek invention. Heavily armored men would stand shoulder to shoulder and advance in a mass. The phalanx was effective in crushing the more lightly armed Persian troops during the time of Alexander. The Romans developed he legion. Its troops were armed with a short stabbing sword rather than a spear. Each soldier stood further apart than the phalanx. The formation was more flexible and the more spread out nature of the Roman formation allowed them to outflank the more compact Greek formations.

The twin advantages of a large population meant that Rome would over the next 400 years win wars even when poor generals led it. It had a military organization that was would work even with generals of limited talents and if something went wrong the Roman state could put army after army into the field. The decline of the Roman empire occurred when the military organization of the state changed and peasant levies gave rise to mercenary armies.

It would seem that Hannibal's father Hamilicar was an extremely competent military commander. He fought a guerrilla campaign against the Romans during the first war. After the peace he put down a mercenary revolt in Africa with numerically inferior forces. He then went on to conquer Spain. The reason for conquering Spain was to provide an economic base for the conquest of Rome. His son Hannibal fought in Spain to consolidate his fathers conquests.

Hannibal's war with Rome is remarkable in many respects but the one which Dodge explains is that it was a private war. The Carthaginian State did not really have the resources to finance a war with Rome. The enterprise was based on revenue from Spanish mines as were most of the infantry. Spain was in effect the personal property of Hannibal. He made a decision to attack Rome and Carthage agreed this decision to as it did not mean that they had to contribute much to the war effort.

Hannibal realized that to defeat Rome he would have to break up the Roman confederation. His strategy was to invade Italy and by winning military victories to prize away Romes allies.

In the end the scheme failed. Rome lost army after army but she was always able to raise more. In the end the Romans held Hannibal at bay while conquering Spain and cutting off the chance of fresh troops. Hannibal had to retreat to Africa were he was at last beaten at the battle of Zama. Rome triumphed and went on to rule most of what is now Europe for 800 years.

Dodge rates Hannibal as one of antiquities greatest figures. Although in the end his career was a failure the challenges he had to face were immense. Alexander the Great inherited an army and faced enemies of much less caliber and steel than Hannibal did. Caesar was born into the Roman empire and was given command of armies which Hannibal could only dream of. Hannibal's achievement's were immense. He fashioned with his father a private state sufficiently rich to enable him to raise a private army. That army he trained and honed into one of the finest of its age. He won spectacular victories over what was to be the strongest power in Europe for hundreds of years. His campaigns were far sighted and he had enormous talents in keeping together for over ten years a mercenary army made up of many different peoples. In Italy he was one of the first to create an intelligence network to monitor the movement of Roman armies and to anticipate cities which might be willing to change allegiance to his side. Despite these many talents there is a limit to what an individual can do when faced by a nation.

Dodges book is readable and in its own way fascinating. His own war experience gives him a much richer understanding of the campaigns and the maneuvers between the battles. The histories which still survive are those written by Polybius, Livy and Plutarch. Dodge is of the view that Polybius had a grasp of military matters which Livy and Plutarch lacked. He has to reconstruct the movements of the various armies to get a real picture of what was happening.

All in all a fascinating book which conveys the nuts and bolts reality of warfare in the ancient world.

This book is geared more towards implementing an existing design onto an Oracle database rather than how to design a good warehouse then implement it into Oracle. Its very adept at what it does, I just wish it went over more design theory.

I agree, this may be the book on Oracle Data Warehousing with the most practical value. On the other hand, the Oracle RDBMS is evolving so dramatically, that this book alone is no longer sufficient. When they publish a second edition, covering Oracle8i features, I'll come back and give it five stars.

I have read a lot of books on data warehousing. Some of them good, some of them terrible. This one is by and far one of the best. Gary did a great job with this book. Of all the books I have read on Data warehousing with Oracle this is the one to which I refer the most. If you are at all interested in Data Warehousing with Oracle GET THIS BOOK. It is a definit must.

...when you read this book. I first saw this book at a cousin's house where we'd gone after a family party. I picked it up to flip through while waiting for the coffee to brew and didn't put it down until I was finished. My family thought I was strange because I sat in the corner reading this book and laughing hysterically (OK they think I'm strange anyway but you get the point).
I was not a Dave Barry fan and had never read anything of his until this book but now I'm hooked. If you are a music fan you will appreciate his views on the absurdity of many lyrics. This book grew out of a column he wrote about bad songs/lyrics which generated the biggest reader response ever. From the intro (where he warns you that if you keep reading you're likely to have bad songs running around your head endlessly) he'll have you laughing out loud. You'll never listen to Neil Diamond the same way again. Interestingly enough, he had as many responses for as against Neil Diamond, both sides adamant in their views. Some of the letters he received are just as hilarious as Dave's writings. Everyone is fair game from pop, rock, 50's, even Paul Anka. Even if you're a fan of some of the artists he lampoons you'll have to laugh at his take on the lyrics. A close analogy would be that he's almost "Seinfeldesque" in his commentary, making you think about the lyrics in a way you never did.

Dave delights (& horrifies) us once again with hilarious commentary on materials collected over the years from his Alert Readers. The subject: a long list of Really Bad Songs that will take up space in your brain that could otherwise be put to good use.

No genre of music is spared. Neither are we. We are treated to reminders of Country, Rock 'n' Roll, and all sorts of well-known "popular" selections in between that we would have rather forgotten and which will now be playing in the backs of our brains all night. The compensation is that we will get to laugh first.

If you generally find yourself snickering, chortling or otherwise guffawing as you read Dave Barry, this book will be no exception. I especially recommend the Audio version to listen to as you embark on a long road trip.
-Andrea, aka Merribelle

"This book, like so many of the unpleasant things we encounter as we go through life, is Neil Diamond's fault." So begins Dave Barry's riotous "Book of Bad Songs" an extension of a highly popular column he wrote in 1992. After asking his readers to send in postcards detailing the songs they hated the most, Dave was astonished to receive over 10,000 replies, with votes still coming in to this day.

Realizing he had touched a nerve ("People were stopping me on the street, grabbing me by the shirt, and with cold fury in their eyes saying things like: 'You know that song about the pina coladas? I hate that song. I HATE IT.'") Dave devoted two columns to his bad song survey and eventually wrote this book, a celebration of some truly horrifying "music". Included here are the original winners of the survey, as well as special sections on "Teen Death Songs", "Song Women Really Hate" (such as the immortal Crystals' tune "He Hit Me and It Felt Like a Kiss") and "Weenie Music" (Barry Manilow features heavily in this chapter, as I am sure you can imagine). Hilarious from beginning to end, my only complaint about the "Bad Song Book" is that at less than 100 pages it feels a little slight.

One hundred pages though IS enough to generate an enormous amount of pain as we remember dreadful song after song (by the time he got to "You Light Up My Life" I had to briefly stop reading so I could roll around the floor, clutching my head), so maybe this kind of thing is better taken in small dosages. Rest assured that Dave suffered a lot more than we will, but as he says "I did it all for you. You you bo boo, bo nan fana fo foo, fee fie mo moo, you."

GRADE: A
(Extra points for the gleeful jabs at Gary Puckett.)

When I started reading this book, I thought the number of characters would confuse. The opposite happened. Each character comes to life as you turn the pages. They become real, feeling people that you don't want to leave behind when you finish reading the book. When I got to the last page, I still wanted to know what happens next?

Not your average murder mystery, its not about guessing 'who dunnit" more why, and what will they do next?

The lives and subplots of all the characters are as important, if not more so than the police investigation.

I highly recommend this book, and look forward to more Inspector Terry books in the near future.

The story leaves you with a warm feeling, and wanting more from this intuitive new author.

If anyone in London loves to dance more than Jessica Warner does, people would say they are obsessed or perhaps possessed. To Jessica, to dance is live. Her passion to dance supersedes any feelings towards her spouse (Roger) and her former lover and current choreographer (the married David Powell). Currently, Jessica rehearses for her role in the Caesar Dance Theater production of "The Taming of the Shoe".

However, before opening night, Jessica vanishes. Detective Inspector Frederick Terry begins to investigate what happened to the dancer. He quickly concludes everyone wants something from Jessica. While Terry continues to look into her past, Jessica is shackled to a bed. Depressed, she fears only that she may never dance again even as her kidnaper dives her deeper into insanity.

THE RHYTHM OF REVENGE is a taut character-driven thriller that gets inside the minds of the lead characters and several support players. The fast-paced story line is filled with non-stop suspense. However, this novel is a character tale as the audience sees and feels the impact of Jessica's obsession on everyone that she touches. Christine Spindler provides the audience with a powerful psychological drama that will leave readers avidly awaiting her next tale.

Harriet Klausner

Wow! This book is a real treat---the reader embarks on the plot in very much the same way as he/she would enter a room and observe its inhabitants; by catching glimpses of the conversations and attempting to draw meaning from the actions. The Caesar dance studio is a full blooded organism--throbbing with the people who make it work--each of these people have lives--many lives which are disclosed partly but mostly are kept private--very much like our own. As the "new kid on the block", the reader is allowed to let all the impressions sink in and actually speculate, as does Inspector Terry, the police detective called on the job when the Caesar's lead dancer is discovered missing right before a key performance.
This "slice of life" technique works wonderfully well, upstaging the actual mystery with its sophisticated nuances and effective dialogue.
A word of warning, Ms. Spindler forces you to like her characters and you will feel pain when they are hurt, physically and mentally. Inspector Terry is sensitive and not the usual brilliant sleuth--what a relief!
I cannot wait to read the next installment of Inspector Terry's career. Brava Ms Spindler for an acute study of 21st century life.

FUP is, without question, one of my favorite pieces of writing. I have read it over and over, and passed it to many friends. Stone Junction has some entertaining sections, but mostly falls flat -- too many gimmicks, not enough good writing and substance. Forego reading it, and read FUP instead.

STONE JUNCTION is one of those books where you never know what is going to happen next. It's best to read it without knowing anything about it beforehand so you can charge through it wildly, marveling at this author's vivid imagination. The story takes a mother, her son, and a group of diverse characters all over the US on an outrageous scheme. It is described as an alchemical potboiler, which it clearly is, so expect magical and inexplicable events. I found this book in London where one of the staff from the bookstore had recommended it. I'm so glad!

There are few more enjoyable pleasures in this world than being caught completely off-guard by a novel. I picked up STONE JUNCTION at a discount book sale, drawn in by the jacket, and the price. I began reading it with absolutely no preconceived notions as to its content, or worth.

By the end of the story, I knew that this was my favorite novel of all time.

It's the story of Daniel Pearce, an orphaned youngster who is brought under the guidance of some of the most off-kilter and bizarre people imaginable. While this may reek of HARRY POTTER, this is most assuredly a story for adults.

STONE JUNCTION is about the world behind the world, the people we sledom get to know. It is a world of crime, and conspiracies, and greed, and love, and magic. That author Jim Dodge holds it all together is a fine feat in and of itself, but he does more than that; he makes the reader yearn for this life. Although (in my edition) he states emphatically that the novel is a work of fiction ("Believe otherwise at your peril"), Dodge's world is so well-defined that it's difficult not to wish it existed.

The novel also has that one remaining aspect that so many novels, even the truly great ones, lack; it left me wanting more.

This and the Hannibal and Alexander books in the series provide very detailed descriptions of the battles. Unlike for the Alexander book, the author was able to visit the battlegrounds covered in this book to confirm the feasibility of claims made by prior historians. That in itself is useful. What is lacking is any kind of analysis of events and battle tactics and, more importantly, there's no synthesis whatsoever that addresses the Origin and Growth of the Art of War, the theme of the series. For that, the first volume of Delbruck's series is more insightful and the four books by Connolly, Hanson, Goldsworthy, and Warry on greek and roman warfare have more illustrative maps.events and battle tactics and, more importantly, there's no synthesis whatsoever that addresses the Origin and Growth of the Art of War, the theme of the series. For that, the first volume of Delbruck's series is more insightful and the four books by Connolly, Hanson, Goldsworthy, and Warry on greek and roman warfare have more illustrative maps.

I have found this to be an excellent account of Ceasars battles, my only criticism is the lack of information on the training and conditioning of the troops. The book tells of the excellent discipline and fighting skills of the legionaries but not how they got that way. Other than that the book was very hard to put down.

You will enjoy Dodge's grand study of Caesar's military career once you accept its central premise: this is "purely" a military study. Dodge NEVER strays into either a description of the political scene, and is loathe to render moral judgments. This may be occasionally frustrating: the Egyptian sojourn, for instance, is merely a lesson on why a general should not separate himself from his main legion. Cleopatra is little more than a marginal note. The clashes with Pompey, and the fateful decision to cross the Rubicon, are purely a matter of assessing the strengths and dispositions of the competing legions. Once or twice, Dodge will stray from his pedantic terms of reference, for example, he joins many others in condemning Caesar's cruel and dastardly massacre of around 430,000 German tribesfolk during the Conquest of Gaul. But Dodge - like any good West Point man of the c.19th - is far more interested in the engineering feats, of fording and bridging rivers, of marching armies vast distances in a day, of fortifying camps, of digging trenches and of building elaborate siegeworks. In this respect, Dodge's study is methodical and brilliant.