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Rating: 
Summary: Useful, entertaining and complete with just enough history.
Review: I bartended (part time) for years and heard a lot of toasts, but no one could explain the origin of toasting. A customer bought me this book and all my questions were answered.The text is simple and easy to follow. If you are looking for a toast for a particular situation, just go to the category index in the front pages and thumb your way through. You will laugh, you will learn, you may even get a little grossed out. But all in all, if you love history and you entertain or like to be the life of the party, this is a great buy. I recommend it highly.
Rating: 
Summary: Do you know the Bishop of Norwich?
Review: In an age when some of us fear the loss of gentility, Toasts reminds that there are those who still covet proper comportment.
Toasts provided me the perfect words to use at my parents' 50th anniversary, and I use it routinely as a reference prior to business dinners and other gatherings where I know I'll be called upon for the honors.
Rating:
Summary: Carpe glass (Sieze the glass!)
Review: Like a real pro, Paul Dickson has produced, actually concocted, a rich compendium of examples and answers to any query and questions about toasting and hosting. Getting a copy even helped me articulate my sincere attestations when I entertain a few close friends and acquaintances in my modest home; though frequently with coffee or irish cream or shandy, seldom with wine. Dickson does not preach, he guides and suggests. As your reading progresses, you easily learn, comprehend and take heart what is appropriate if perfect, and then sense what to avoid or perceive what is uncalled for when giving someone or something a toast. This book is not only amusing. It's a deliciously entertaining and concrete fount of infos and references for fledgling hosts and party impresarios. I read my copy cover to cover and felt like popping the champagne and making the wine glasses clink! For Amazon --- I've changed my e-mail address from wsimple@yahoo to w_waif@yahoo
Rating:
Summary: Carpe glass (Sieze the glass!)
Review: Like a real pro, Paul Dickson has produced, actually concocted, a rich compendium of examples and answers to any query and questions about toasting and hosting. Getting a copy even helped me articulate my sincere attestations when I entertain a few close friends and acquaintances in my modest home; though frequently with coffee or irish cream or shandy, seldom with wine. Dickson does not preach, he guides and suggests. As your reading progresses, you easily learn, comprehend and take heart what is appropriate if perfect, and then sense what to avoid or perceive what is uncalled for when giving someone or something a toast. This book is not only amusing. It's a deliciously entertaining and concrete fount of infos and references for fledgling hosts and party impresarios. I read my copy cover to cover and felt like popping the champagne and making the wine glasses clink! For Amazon --- I've changed my e-mail address from wsimple@yahoo to w_waif@yahoo
Rating:
Summary: "One sip of this will bathe the drooping spirits . . ."
Review: This is a fantastic resource, the best single source on toasting which I have ever come across. The introduction and "Brief History of Raised Glasses" provides a brief, gentle, and highly useful education so that you can oh so suavely back up immediately any question or challenge to the quote you've chosen from this cornucopia of highly organized toasts for just about any occasion imaginable. The illustrations are superfluous, but the footnotes are very, very useful. At first glance a bit pedantic, they allow the user of the toast to speak (and understand) the traditional language, such as "stook," "murphies," and "banns." The different subject areas, plainly intuitive, and listed alphabetically in the table of contents include such further instructive chapters as "Hints for Effective Toasting," "Odd Customs," a "Selected Toast and Tipple Glossary," and "Skoaling." The different subject areas are also modestly cross-referenced to each other, such as the entry "see also 'friendship;' 'general;' 'guests'" concluding the "Hosts and Hostesses" section. There is also a useful bibliography. What is missing and would have completed the book would be an index. This is my only complaint with this superb, and in my case oft-used little reference.
Rating:
Summary: "One sip of this will bathe the drooping spirits . . ."
Review: This is a fantastic resource, the best single source on toasting which I have ever come across. The introduction and "Brief History of Raised Glasses" provides a brief, gentle, and highly useful education so that you can oh so suavely back up immediately any question or challenge to the quote you've chosen from this cornucopia of highly organized toasts for just about any occasion imaginable. The illustrations are superfluous, but the footnotes are very, very useful. At first glance a bit pedantic, they allow the user of the toast to speak (and understand) the traditional language, such as "stook," "murphies," and "banns." The different subject areas, plainly intuitive, and listed alphabetically in the table of contents include such further instructive chapters as "Hints for Effective Toasting," "Odd Customs," a "Selected Toast and Tipple Glossary," and "Skoaling." The different subject areas are also modestly cross-referenced to each other, such as the entry "see also 'friendship;' 'general;' 'guests'" concluding the "Hosts and Hostesses" section. There is also a useful bibliography. What is missing and would have completed the book would be an index. This is my only complaint with this superb, and in my case oft-used little reference.
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