DWD's Reviews

Fascinating. Published in 2000 by University of California Press. The title of Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? pretty much tells it all - it is an academic exploration into the people who deny the Holocaust ever happened and their motivations for making this claim. Of course, you may be wondering why someone would make a claim like this, despite the film footage of newly-liberated camps, eyewitness testimony from both victims and perpetrators, the population records that show that, indeed, some 6 million Jews did not survive World War II and damning circumstantial evidence from Hitler and members of his inner circle that alludes to a "Final Solution" to the "Jewish problem". Well, the deniers are a motley lot. Some are educated and well-spoken and others are not. Some feel that Germany has become a martyred nation to the cause of eradicating racism. Others are pro-fascist in politics and want to get rid of the tai...

Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto  reminds me of an expanded, modern version of Thomas Paine's Common Sense or Frederic Bastiat's The Law. It's nearest direct competitor is Glenn Beck's Common Sense , but Levin's work is superior. Levin has a nice touch with a pen. He is, for the most part, a careful author that explains his points of view in everyday language, sometimes in a quite stirring way. This is ironic because Mark Levin is perhaps most famous for his radio show ( The Mark Levin Show ) where he is given to bombastic rants and over the top comments that make me cringe from time to time. The audiobook is read by Adam Grupper who does a solid job, but, surprisingly not as good as Levin who reads the introduction himself. The introduction is a particularly strong - I think it is the best part of the book -  and if you have an Amazon Kindle you can download the introduction as a free sample and read it for yourself. Levin defines conservatism ...

An Interesting Study of Male Friendship Published in 2001 by Recorded Books. 4 compact discs 4.5 hours read by Nelson Runger Comrades: Brothers, Fathers, Heroes, Sons, Pals is an exploration into male friendship by renowned historian and author Stephen E. Ambrose (1936-2002). He looks into different kinds of friendship including friendship between brothers, friendship among schoolmates (especially college), friends from among his students, friendship among men who have been in combat together, friendship as young men, friendship as old men and the friendship that can develop between a father and son once his son is an adult. Stephen E. Ambrose (1936-2002) Specific friendships studied include: -The three Ambrose brothers; -Dwight and Milton Eisenhower; -The Custer Brothers, who all died at Little Big Horn; -Crazy Horse and He-Dog; -Eisenhower and Patton - two very different men who respected and valued their differences; -Nixon as the friendless man (tal...

I recommend hearing it as an audiobook Originally published in 1969 in book form. Published by Dh Audio in 1985. Read by Jose Ferrer. Duration: 5 cassette tapes Unabridged. I could add to the volumes of literary criticism that fills the reviews of Slaughterhouse Five , but what's the point of that? Rather, I will recommend that you hear the book as an audiobook - the book's a stream of consciousness, disjointed approach works very well on tape. The reader shifts from one scene to another as easily as Billy Pilgrim does. The version I heard was not the one available here. Mine was narrated by Jose Ferrer and he did a wonderful job. Too bad Ferrer has passed on. So it goes. I rate this book 5 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: Slaughterhouse Five .  Kurt Vonnegut Reviewed on February 3, 2005 Note: This book has been challenged multiple times over the years for sexual content, foul language and teaching principles contrary to the Bible. At one po...

Good, fast-paced roller coaster ride Originally published in 2002. I f the first two opening scenes don't grab you than you had better check your pulse and see if you're still alive! Phillip Margolin Others have reviewed  The Associate   and correctly stated that it is not a pure legal thriller. True enough. There are legal parts to this story, but the case is not resolved through fancy legal footwork. Rather, the thriller becomes a mystery too and we race along with our heroes to see if they can save everyone and expose the villains. Is it great literature? Hardly. But, it's a lot of fun and I tore through it like a starving man at a buffet.   I rate this book 5 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: The Associate by Phillip Margolin.   Reviewed on February 1, 2005

Solid Prequel. When the Tripods Came is a prequel to the YA sci-fi trilogy known as the Tripods Trilogy. In the original trilogy, an alien master race rules the earth around the year 2100. The aliens are never seen and travel the world in giant tripods with prehensile legs (I often think of the Tripods when I see water towers in small towns). The aliens use mind control techniques to control the human population which lives in a low tech feudal type society. Every year young people are brought to the Tripods to be "capped" - a process that involves having a metallic cap attached to the skull that facilitates the control of humanity.  John Christopher The original series was published in 1967 and 1968. The prequel was published in 1988. The prequel tells how humanity first encountered the Tripods when the Tripods landed on earth and seemed bent on destruction. The Tripods were quickly defeated militarily so the aliens pulled back and began using cartoon sho...

Painted Ladies is Robert B. Parker's latest offering in the long-running Spenser series. Parker died in January 2010 and this book was already in the pipeline waiting to be published (he has one more coming out called Sixkill ) . According to my count, this is number 37 in the Spenser series. Painted Ladies  is a solid novel. It is nowhere near as good as the best of the series (in my opinion, that would be Looking for Rachel Wallace and the ones created at about the same time in the late 1970s and early 1980s) but it is not an embarassment like Potshot , either. The plot revolves around the theft of a piece of art called Lady with a Finch . Someone has called with an offer to return the painting for a ransom and Spenser is hired to protect Ashton Prince, the art expert who will deliver the ransom to the kidnappers during the exchange. Spenser ultimately fails as a bodyguard as the painting is booby-trapped with a bomb and Ashton Prince is vaporized right in front of Spense...

Better than the first book. 6 Discs 7 hours, 30 minutes Read by: Stephen J. Dubner, one of the authors SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance is the sequel to the wildly popular book by the same authors, Freakomonics the movie and a newspaper column . One author is the economics talent - the man with all of the questions who knows where to find the answers. The other is the writing talent (who is learning a good bits of economics along the way, no doubt) who takes these interesting topics and puts them on paper in an interesting way. The goal of these books and the newspaper column is to get people to look at the world in a different way - an economic way of thinking. I find these works to be fascinating, eye-opening and always entertaining, even if I don't always agree with their conclusions (sometimes I think they are asking the wrong questions or have not gathered in enough information). Thei...

Enjoyable - offbeat, funny, informative, thought-provoking Published by Brilliance Audio in 2010. Read by Sandra Burr. Duration: 10 hours, 27 minutes. Unabridged.  The point of Mary Roach's Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void is not the technical challenges of sending an object to Mars. We have demonstrated that we can send a probe to Mars, operate it and do a bit of exploring. No, this is about sending a human to Mars, a much more difficult proposition. Mary Roach deals with the following (and more) in her Packing for Mars : -We eat, drink, and create bodily waste. How do we store enough food to make the trip to Mars? -How do we deal with expelling bodily waste in a zero gravity environment (no toilets - everything would just float out!) -What do we do with the waste? Can you recycle it back into food? Who would want to eat that? -Can people actually live together in cramped quarters for months at a time with no break and not kill one...

I love this series Published in 2006 by Coldwater Media I teach history in a public school so using this Drive Thru History: East Meets West  in my classroom is not a viable option due to the contemporary religious references. However, if you are in a Christian school or homeschool with a Christian emphasis I can enthusiastically recommend this series. East Meets West has two 30 minute plus programs about Turkey and Asia Minor. Turkey is literally where the Middle East meets the West. In episode 1, Dave Stotts takes us to Cappadocia, a unique area with an underground city and roots in the Old Testament and in the post-Biblical era as a scene of anti-Christian persecution by both the Romans and the Muslims. Episode 2 is the stronger of the two. It covers the Emperor Constantine, the controversy that caused the creation of the Nicene Creed, the fall of Constantinople and the wonderful Hagia Sofia church turned to mosque now museum. Episode 3 is a "best of" for the fir...

An entertaining read W. Hodding Carter covers plumbing from the Ancient Indians, Greeks and Romans to modern day Japanese badet toilet in  Flushed: How the Plumber Saved Civilization , a meandering romp through sewers, both past and present. Carter's light-hearted writing style makes it a fun read. He meanders all over the world of bathrooms, pipes and open-pit sewers but the trip is a fun one. There are a lot of detours, but it's fun and informative. W. Hodding Carter That being said, there are a couple of stumbles. On page 30 he claims the Hellenistic Age is named for Helen of Troy, which is ridiculous. Chapter 8 "Blame It On the Christians" is an equally ridiculous attempt to blame all of the Western world's issues with defecation and urination (mostly cutesy names like poo-poo and the desire to defecate alone) on Christianity. He quotes Francis of Assisi to make his case that Christianity made using the bathroom and being physically clean a "d...

Starts out strong, ends up tiresome Published by Random House Audio Dimension in 2004. Read by one of the authors, Allan Pease. 3 discs 3 hours Abridged. Why Men Don't Have a Clue and Women Always Need More Shoes starts out with a bang, delving into a lot of the differences that drive men and women crazy. These are mostly humorous and mostly full of good advice. But, we never do find out about women and shoes, nor do we find the answers to some of the questions posed in the opening section, such as, "Why don't women initiate sex more often?" Barbara and Allan Pease There is interesting commentary on the reactions of men and women to retirement, why men switch the channels so often and the comments on men's behaviors in public restrooms is dead on accurate. However, I felt cheated that so much of the book (about 1/3 by my estimate as a listener) is about the physical characteristics that of the opposite sex that interest men and women. I felt that this...

Fairly boring story, lots of good info on Italian culture, history and cuisine Published by Random House Audio in 2005. Read by Michael Beck. 11 hours, 4 minutes. Unabridged. T he last two thrillers that I have read by John Grisham have been anything but. A couple of years ago I listened to The King of Torts and came away with a great education in class action lawsuits but at the cost of a disappointing story. With The Broker , I came away with a great education in Italian culture, cuisine and great insights into the oft-overlooked city of Bologna, Italy - but it was a thriller with precious few thrills. John Grisham The Broker is centers around Joe Blackman, a Washington, D.C. lobbyist that plays fast and loose with all of the rules and revels in throwing his weight all over town. Blackman is approached by Pakastani computer hackers who have discovered and hijacked a set of super high tech spy satellites with a special computer program. They want Blackman to sell...

I cannot recommend this book enough. Originally published in 1850. The Law is a small book on the basics of economic principles written by Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850), a French economist and member of their National Assembly. He only published works during the last 5 years of his life, which was cut short by a lingering illness. The Law struck me as an economics version of Thomas Paine's Common Sense - a short, easy to understand book full of impassioned, clearly laid out arguments and examples that clearly demonstrate the author's arguments. Bastiat was a man who was not in synch with his times or his country. He grew up in Napoleonic France, a time and place that replaced the idea of individual liberty with government action for the good of the individual. Bastiat argues (and supplies plenty of examples to back his arguments) that this is a perversion of the purpose of government: "The organizers maintain that society, when left undirected, rushed headlong to its ...

It just didn't work for me This wasn't a bad book - I finished it and I wanted to know what was going on, but... The book successfully creates a mood. It reminds me of one of those novels set in the Highland Moors in which creepy Lord Whatshisname gathers his family, friends and professional acquaintances to his manor as he lies dying. The sparks fly and secrets are revealed as the horrible weather howls outside. Jericho's Fall is not based on the Highlands, but on a lonely mountaintop mansion compound in Colorado. There is no English Lord, but instead we have a former Secretary of Defense/CIA Director. His daughters, his ex-lover and loads of professional contacts are in and out of the compound. Sparks do fly and secrets are revealed as freezing rain and snow fall. Well, I hate those kinds of books and this one had a few too many hidden agendas, double secret agents and super spy secret gadgets for my tastes. Too much posturing and too many mind games. It is r...

Much like Geraldo himself, this book is a lot of sizzle and not much substance Published in 2009 by Celebra. Sadly, I have to do some explaining before we start. I am a history and a Spanish teacher (20th year this year!). I live in an ethnically mixed neighborhood in which my best neighbors are, by far, a Mexican family. I live with illegal immigration every day, in my neighborhood and at my work. I am not a raving nut that says "round 'em up!" Nor am I an open borders guy that wants to take in the whole world. My neighborhood has been materially improved by immigrants who have moved in. So, now that we've gotten that out of the way, on to Geraldo's book, The Great Progression: How Hispanics Will Lead America to a New Era of Prosperity . It is a lot of sizzle, half-baked commentary and an endless series of attacks on Lou Dobbs (who I must admit that I have not watched for years now since we ditched cable and we don't have satellite - I thought he was the h...