DWD's Reviews

Published in 2020 by ChristianAudio. Read by Neil Shah. Duration: 8 hours, 5 minutes. Unabridged. I heard about The Other Side of the Wall on The Holy Post podcast . I knew that there were Palestinian Christians in Gaza, but I hadn't given it much thought. Generally, I find the Palestinian/Israeli conflict too intractable to think about. It's not that I don't care, it's that simple solutions (or even insanely complicated solutions) don't even seem to be on the horizon at all and in a world with so many problems close at hand, it's easy not to think about problems half a world away. My bandwidth is just not that big. But, the interview was good - it came from an unexpected source in this conflict. The podcast host interviewed Munther Isaac, a Lutheran pastor and teacher. He is also a Palestinian from Gaza. There has been a continual Christian presence in Gaza as long as anyone can tell, although it is dwindling as Palestinian Christians opt out of the conflict z

Published by Amazon Original Stories in 2023. Synopsis: There has been a murder in one of the newest and most exclusive high rise apartments in London. The night security guard in the lobby was found dead by his girlfriend (she used to sneak in for a little romancing in the middle of the night.) His head was smashed into the corner of the counter and a fancy electronic door key is missing from the collection of spare keys in the office. When detectives start asking around it looks like just about everyone in the apartment building could have killed the guard, including the girlfriend. My review: The first half of this story was pretty tedious. The way the crime was finally solved was kind of obvious - and I missed it! I rate this short story 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: T he Rise: A Short Story by Ian Rankin .

Published by Penguin Audio in 2022. Read by Stephen Mendel. Duration: 11 hours, 35 minutes. Unabridged. The Runaway is the seventh book in the Peter Ash series. Ash is a retired Marine with PTSD issues and an intense desire to help people in need. Sometimes he settles down, sometimes he wanders. In this book, Ash is crossing the country and is near the border of South Dakota and Nebraska. He comes across a broken down car and a very pregnant young lady. She is desperate to get going down the road so he takes her.  They get a few miles down the road when they come across a truck blocking the road. They turn around and find another truck blocking the road and leaving them nowhere to go. The hitchhiker tells Ash that he is in very grave danger and he should flee... My review: For a book full of action, thrills, and mayhem, this book was often tedious.  ********Spoilers******** The pregnant young lady is a victim of gaslighting and, eventually, kidnapping. The process was long and very de

Published by Hourly History in 2021. I think this is the third book I've read in the last few years that is at least partially about the Mexican Revolutionary Pancho Villa (1878-1923). I read two that were basically about American responses to Villa's cross-border excursions  (and near misses) into the United States for money and supplies. Each entry in the Hourly History series is, by definition, a short book. Each entry is supposed to be read in about an hour. This biography was neither bad nor good. It did tell the basically outlines of his life without giving the reader much a sense of the man. Even worse, Villa will forever be associated with the Mexican Revolution but this book did a pretty poor job of explaining the complicated politics that Villa tried to navigate. It seemed that he was an insider one week, on the outs the next week, and running for his life the week after that and I had no understanding as to why that was. A good basic intro, but nothing more. I rate t

Published in 2009 by HarperAudio. Read by Stephen Lang. Duration: 2 hours, 25 minutes. Unabridged. My Synopsis: In 1971 a relatively unknown director made an ABC made for TV movie called Duel . The plot was simple enough - a traveling salesman is harassed by a semi-truck with a mysterious on a nearly empty desert highway. Spielberg took this opportunity and turned it into the movie that made his career. Now, Duel is a cult classic. Before the movie was made, there was  the short story of the same name. Richard Matheson wrote the short story and the screenplay. Joe Hill and Stephen King added a second story called Throttle to this collection. It features a motorcycle gang trying to decide their next steps after a botched attempt to find some missing money that resulted in a brutal murder. Suddenly, a semi-truck catches up to the gang and begins to pick them off one by one. My Review: Duel was a very good short story. It draws you in and keeps you involved to the end.  Throttle is to

Originally published in 1967. Audiobook published in 2004 by Listening Library. Read by Jim Fyfe, Duration: 5 hours, 9 minutes. Unabridged. Listed on BBC's list of 100 Most Inspiring Novels in 2019 . Author is the winner of the inaugural Margaret A. Edwards Award for YA  My synopsis: This is a true YA classic. Some consider this to be the book that invented the YA genre. Written by a high school student in the 1960's, The Outsiders is the story of a group of "greasers" in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Greasers are poor teens who grow up on the tough side of town. Adult supervision is pretty lax and they spend their days smoking, flirting with girls, and working. They join loose gangs and fight among themselves, but they all unite when their biggest enemies come around. Their biggest enemies are the rich kids who cruise the poor side of town looking for a fight. The main character is the oddly-named Ponyboy. Ponyboy's deceased parents like to give their children odd names. Po