DWD's Reviews

       Just About as Perfect as It Could Be Published by GraphicAudio in 2013 Multicast Performance Duration: about 6 hours Adapted from the original book. As D.C. Comics gears up for their big Batman vs. Superman release next year it is interesting to look at how these two iconic characters ever ended up meeting, working together and then become trusted allies. I grew up in the era when Superfriends and the Justice League were Saturday morning mainstays. Unfortunately, these were horrible days for the Batman franchise. Batman was reduced to being a sidekick of Superman with his only saving grace being that he was the only sidekick with a sidekick (Robin). The first Micheal Keaton Batman movie brought a dark side to the character that had probably never been seen on screen.  Batman has trust issues. He is secretive and he is often the only force for justice in a city that perverts the law to do the work of evil men. He must work in secrecy and hide in the shadows. Thi

   Libertarians and Conservatives - Natural Allies, Natural Rivals Published in 2015 by Crown Forum Charles C. W. Cooke is a writer for National Review  and as such he has been in the center of a storm as the political Right works through a new generation of thought on a variety of issues. In some issues, the political Right is united, such as on the concept of Limited Government and keeping taxes as low as possible. Ron Paul Generally speaking, Libertarians bond more readily with the Right than the Left, which is why Ron Paul identified as a Libertarian for years yet caucused with the Republicans in the Congress and ran for president as a Republican. The dislike of the Nanny State on many issues pushes them together as temporary allies on many issues. But, on other issues such as the War on Drugs and Gay Marriage the Right is split and split deeply. Cooke is attempting to nudge the Republicans a little more to the Libertarian point of view on things so that these temporar

Published in in 2009 by MacMillan Audio Read by William Dufris, Callista Gingrich and Eric Conger Duration: 12 hours, 23 minutes Unabridged To Try Men's Souls is a powerful piece of historical fiction that focuses on three men in the American army at its lowest point in the Revolutionary War - right before the famed surprise attack on the Hessians at Trenton. The story follows three men - one is a New Jersey private with family on both sides of the war, the other two are George Washington and Thomas Paine. The book is fairly complicated in its structure with lots of flashbacks and intertwining story lines. Through George Washington the reader learns the long sad story of the shrinking American Army's numerous retreats throughout the summer and fall of 1776 and how Washington gambled it all on a surprise raid to raise American morale. Thomas Paine's character was a bit more complicated. These are the months just after the success of his tract Common Sense  that

Published by Hachette Audio in November of 2014 Read by Titus Welliver Duration: 10 hours, 11 minutes Unabridged In a book that feels like the beginning of the end to the long, productive career of LAPD Detective Harry Bosch, Bosch and his new partner work on two different cold cases. One case is unique in that the murder victim just died but the shot that killed him was fired years before - the injury finally overwhelmed him.  The second case is personal to Bosch's new partner, Lucia "Lucy" Soto. As a child, she was in a day care that was operated in the basement of an apartment building when someone set fire to the garbage in another part of the basement with a Molotov cocktail sort of device. The resulting fire killed a number of the children and their teacher. Since Soto has such a personal stake in this case she should preclude herself from it - but Bosch works it so that they can re-open the case as part of another case. Michael Connelly. Photo by Mark

Published in 2012 by BBC Audiobooks Ltd. Read by Frances Barber Duration: 1 hour, 13 minutes Unabridged Two physicists are working in a secret lab in a massive space station that literally encircles a planet. Their secret project is kept hidden from everyone - even the power to run it is taken siphoned away from dozens of other locations on the space station. Down below, a unique planet is being studied. In the lab, a a stable wormhole is being perfected. As the wormhole stabilizes, the TARDIS arrives right in the middle of it all. The Doctor (Matt Smith's Doctor) doesn't know where they are at first and he certainly doesn't know why he is there. Once they start to figure things out they discover that things are weirder than they even imagined... Frances Barber was picked to read this audiobook. The producers tried to tie a little Doctor Who authenticity to the book by picking a Doctor Who alum to read the book. Barber played Madame Kovarian - the Eye Patch Wom

Originally published in March of 2014. Installment #13 in the Joe Pickett series left us wondering what Joe would do with himself and how the series could continue. Joe had just quit his job as a Wyoming game warden due to his absolute disgust with a case of government abusing its power and causing an innocent man to be pushed beyond his breaking point. But, what would Joe Pickett do if he wasn't a game warden? As a practical matter, how would the series even continue? It's not like Joe Pickett and Nate Romanowski could open up a private detective service in rural Wyoming. So, Joe is back to what he was doing a few books ago - he has been restored as a game warden again but he is working for the governor as a "troubleshooter." He is the governor's one man personal police force, but the governor hasn't called on him for anything...until now. The governor wants him to discretely look into a mysterious out-of-state man who has moved into north-easte