DWD's Reviews

Published in 1953 and 1959 by The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc Intended for mid to upper elementary students. Thirty-five years ago books like  Narcissa Whitman: Pioneer Girl  filled my library's book shelves in Hope, Indiana and I went through them like a hot knife through butter. I am sure they are a big reason why I enjoy history so much today. I remember enthusiastically reading about the adventures of young Daniel Boone, Abraham Lincoln and even about Martha Washington and other "yucky" girls as I worked my way down the shelf. Narcissa Whitman (1808-1847) I have next to my computer a 1959 hardback copy of  Narcissa Whitman: Pioneer Girl,  part of the  Childhood of Famous Americans  series .  I am happy to note that  Patria Press  out of Indianapolis is re-publishing some the series, which is a good thing in my mind. This book focuses on Narcissa Prentiss (who later in the book marries and becomes Narcissa Whitman), a young pioneer girl on the frontier

  Did Not Have the Same Spirit as the First Book in This Trilogy. Published by Simon and Schuster Audio in 2007. Performed by Gerald Doyle Duration: 13 hours, 31 minutes. Unabridged It is the year 794 and Jack, the 13-year-old Bard-in-training from what is now the United Kingdom is on a new mission. Having recently returned from his adventures with the Vikings and the Frost Giants (detailed in Book #1 of this trilogy,  The Sea of Trolls ) Jack's new adventure begins with a mid-winter ceremony led by his teacher, known simply as The Bard.  The ceremony is supposed to symbolize renewal by ridding the village of all fire. Then, the village gathers in one place and creates a new fire and re-ignites everyone's hearth fires from this new fire. The ceremony has few hard and fast rules, but Jack's self-absorbed sister, Lucy, breaks one of them by bringing metal to the ceremony in the form of a beautiful silver necklace that she was given during their trip to the Viking hom

      A thriller that totally sucked me right in even though I knew I was being manipulated. Published in 2008 by Minotaur Books C.J. Box goes right for the blatantly obvious emotional heartstrings in Three Weeks to Say Goodbye , a thriller that totally sucked me right in even though I knew I was being manipulated. Jack and Melissa McGuane are the proud and loving parents of a nine month old baby girl that they adopted at birth. Everything is going well even though their budget is stretched and Jack's time is stretched with a high-pressure job. Everything is going well, that is, until Jack gets a phone call from the adoption agency they used saying that the birth father never gave up his rights (although the agency assured them that it did) and the birth father wants the baby. When the McGuanes protest they quickly discover that the baby's grandfather is a powerful federal judge who is so connected that he is on the fast track to the Supreme Court. The judge seems

This 2009 edition has been updated to reflect new developments and includes new material obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. I am torn about this book.  If you are not familiar with Pat Tillman, in the broadest terms, he was an NFL player who quit the NFL to join the army after the 9/11 attacks. Where Men Win Glory  focuses intently about the war in Afghanistan, the ongoing war (when this review was written in 2014) that has been mostly forgotten and ignored. Krakauer's review of the recent history of Afghanistan makes this book worth reading in and of itself. For most people, the reasons that Al Qaeda used Afghanistan as a base of operations is murky at best. The descriptions of how Tillman's unit operated and where they traveled are very vivid. Krakauer's 2000 Presidential election spin (the Florida recount - he only tells part of the story and does not mention numerous "recounts" by the media had Bush winning - about as many as had Gore w

Originally published in 1991. Bill Gastner is the cantankerous, ornery old Undersheriff of Posadas County in southern New Mexico. An undersheriff is the person right below the elected position of Sheriff and is appointed by the Sheriff. In the case of fictional Posadas County, the Sheriff is a former used car salesman who is a heck of a businessman but does not know much about law enforcement. So, Bill is literally the old hand that knows his way around the law and the county. Also, he is afraid that the Sheriff might drop him because he's in his sixties and generally considered to be an old grump. Gastner is a widower and an insomniac who will work 20 hours a day if he can. Why not? His kids are grown up and out of the house, he has no love life and he prefers his own company to just about anyone else's. A Southern New Mexico Landscape. Photo by NMTrey. One night while out on one of his volunteer patrols he listens to radio talk about a car filled with teenagers. A

Published by ListenUp Audiobooks in September of 2014. Read by Brian Troxell. Duration: 9 hours, 14 minutes. Unabridged In many ways Trident's First Gleaming is a pretty typical special forces book. You've got a terrorist threat from somewhere in the Middle East, you have an elite group of American operatives who are scrambled to eliminate it, they discover it is worse than anyone has imagined and only they can somehow overcome these newer incredibly long odds and save America and the world. But, in other ways it is different. The main character, Chris Paladin, is more than just a really talented (but retired) operative - he is also an associate pastor of a church in Dallas, Texas. But, when a former colleague reaches out to him and requests his help. She has been assigned to recover a downed Switchblade Whisper, a new type of military drone that can be launched from a submarine. Its wings swing out and lock open when fired out of the submarine, like a switchblade