DWD's Reviews

This one is tricky to review When reviewing a piece of children's literature, especially a piece by a world-famous author and one that was originally created, not for the general public but to console his young son on the loss of a beloved toy, how can you be fair? Do you let the reputation of the author boost the score? Do you judge this book by the standard of his other books? J.R.R. Tolkien Since I have two small children, I decided to judge Roverandom by comparing it to the other children books that I have been reading lately. By that standard, Roverandom comes off as a solid 3 star book. There is little character development - the emphasis is on a fast-moving plot and plenty of inside family references that are covered in the introduction. This is not a prequel to The Hobbit , but it is a quick, fun read with lots of emphasis on fantasy. This book can be found on Amazon.com here:  The Pocket Roverandom I rate this one 3 stars out of 5. Reviewed on Novemb...

Mostly interesting set of essays The theme of this book is, clearly, threats to our freedom. This can be interpreted as America's freedom, Western freedom in general of the freedom of all people throughout the world. Depending on the reader's sensitivities, some of these freedoms may seem trivial (the freedom of ice cream vendors in New York City to sell their wares near city parks, for example) or may seem monumental (back to those same vendors - can you really ban a licensed business from selling his wares just because you don't want to hear your kids whine all day about ice cream?) The writing is generally high quality but there are a wide variety of styles, themes and issues that make this an uneven read. For example, Stephen Schwartz's essay "Shariah in the West" is mostly an essay about how Shariah is not a threat, but just a media-hyped bogeyman,  followed by a few paragraphs about how it might still be a threat. The "Illusion of Innocence...

     A wonderful gift for an owner of Jack Russel Terriers We just got a Jack Russell Terrier from a pet rescue about three weeks ago. My wife found  101 Uses for a Jack Russell  yesterday and the whole family (even the three year old) enjoyed looking through it. Lovely photos and a sense of humor with the captions, such as "#13 - Someone who takes you on a walk". There's also a lot of captions that get the real characteristics of the breed, such as "#79 - Sentry, "41 - Explorer" and "#35 - Hurdler." Enjoyable. Great gift for the Jack Russell lover.   I rated this book 5 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: 101 Uses for a Jack Russell   Reviewed on July 17, 2009.

Excellent, for what it is Published in 2004 by Arcadia Publishing. The "Images of Sports" series is intended to be a scrapbook history of a team, or in this case of an event. The Indy 500: 1956-1965 is a 127 page book mostly comprised of photographs taken by Ben Lawrence, a photographer for the now-defunct Indianapolis Times from 1956-1965. This book is not a comprehensive history of the Indy 500, but rather a photographic scrapbook, a yearbook, if you will. In a way, it was also a Golden Era for the Speedway with the new (also now defunct) scoring tower and the arrival of mainstays such as A.J. Foyt, Parnelli Jones and the Unsers. There are captions for all pictures and a few introductory paragraphs for each new section. Not only does the reader get pictures from the race but also from the first 500 Festival parades, shots of the fans, candid shots of the drivers, track workers and even celebrities (the Jayne Mansfield shot is something else!). The race is more tha...

A history teacher's review When this first came out on PBS I started watching it and never got into the flow of it. I hated the fact that they used actors to play real people rather than using the tried and true (and fantastic) Ken Burns style. Ironically, I absolutely loved the book Liberty ! : The American Revolution by Thomas Fleming by - it is, hands down, the best single-volume comprehensive history of the American Revolution that I have found. So, I was pretty much bashing the series because it was not something else. So, here I am years later and I decided to give it a second try. I am glad that I did. Liberty! is much better than I remembered. It is not as good as the book but it the best documentary on the American Revolution I have seen. It is as thorough as one can be in the limited time that this format will allow. "The Boston Massacre" by Paul Revere As for the actor thing - this time around I really liked it. The actors are really good and th...

Not as good as other Linwood Barclay books Published in 2009 by Bantam. I am an enthusiastic fan of Never Look Away and Fear the Worst my first two Linwood Barclay books. This book continues in the tradition of many film noir thrillers - the regular guy who gets his whole life overturned by some sort of crime and how he reacts to it. Unfortunately, Too Close to Home was not the equal of those two books. In T oo Close to Home we meet the Cutter family, a mom, dad and a teenage son. The neighbors are brutally murdered one night and the family skeletons start to come out of the closet in a big, big way as the police begin to investigate everyone who even might be connected to the victims. Linwood Barclay This was precisely the problem with the book, in my opinion. This family has too many skeletons. Every few pages there is a major plot twist with a "sit down, I've got to tell you something" moment. I am still giving the book 3 stars out of 5 because Barclay...

An enjoyable, short read I had just ended a book and was casting about for something to read in my big pile of books in the closet. I came up with "God Came Near" more as a "Why not?" choice than anything else. I've seen different versions of this book around for years, but I'd never picked it up. I soon found myself drawn in. Lucado revels in the "God in the small things moments." He also focuses his readers on Jesus the man - not the movie version of Jesus, the untouchable, above it all Holy Man. Instead, as the title of this book reminds the readers, "God Came Near" - Jesus was God becoming one of us - a walking, talking human being with sore feet, who got thirsty, who took naps and who was known almost exclusively by his first name by everyone, and a fairly common first name, at that. He came as nobody special and became the most written about and talked about figure in history. I was especially struck by a passage in Chapter...

Full of gimmicks, but it still works! Synopsis: Ancient Enemy  is part of a series of novels about Howard Moon Deer, a highly-educated Sioux Indian who is living in Northern Arizona and helping Jack Wilbur, a blind ex-police chief from San Francisco run a detective agency near the Pueblo Indians. By the way, Howard Moon Deer knows absolutely nothing about being a detective. They run across a couple of murders involving the Pueblos and an ancient Anasazi town and human remains that may have the key to their disappearance centuries ago. The title refers to the Navajo name for the Anasazi.  My review: Robert Westbrook Sound gimmicky? Sound like a bad detective show like Jake and the Fat Man or Remington Steele ? Sure it does, but it still works. Mostly it works because Howard Moon Deer is as much of a fish out of water as the reader is. Although he is a Native American, the Sioux are not like the Arizona Indians at all. Plus, he has pretty much abandoned his India...

Fascinating and depressing look into the "new" Russia Synopsis: The Kursk was the largest, most-powerful nuclear submarine in the Russian fleet. It was one of only a very few of their premier ships - designed before the Soviet collapse and completed by the Russian government. It was larger than anything in the American fleet. The Kursk In August of 2000 there was an accident caused by a malfunction in a poorly maintained dummy torpedo during a war games exercise near the Arctic circle. The explosion of the dummy caused the explosion of every non-nuclear piece of ordinance on the sub and it immediately sink to the floor of the ocean 370 feet down. Most of the sailors died right away but about 20 survived in the aft compartments for several days. The book details the poor quality of Russia's underwater rescue teams (their annual budget for 1999 was $14,000 - their leaders joked about using it to buy a car so they could drive to an underwater rescue ...

I have not cared much for Green Lantern,  but I picked this one up on impulse... Published in 2009 by GraphicAudio 6 CDs 7 hours Voiced by 20 actors Unabridged. When I was a kid I never cared much for Green Lantern. In the D.C. Comics universe I liked Superman and Batman and in Marvel I liked Spider-Man and the Hulk but the Green Lantern never did it for me. Maybe it was the giant green baseball mitts, pincers and boxing gloves coming out of the ring. Just seemed hoaky, I guess. Which is all the stranger that I liked the audiobook for Green Lantern Hero's Quest: Justice League of America  as much as I did . The book features Kyle Rayner, a new Green Lantern whose real life job is that of an artist and his specialty as a Green Lantern seems to be creating artistic even cutesy things with his ring, such as baseball mitts and giant boxing gloves. GraphicAudio creates yet another adaptation that delivers "A Movie In Your Mind" as their slogan promises. I ...

A quick and thought-provoking read The thesis of Why the Left Hates America: Exposing the Lies That Have Obscured Our Nation's Greatness , an exceedingly-well footnoted book, is that some on the ultra-left of the American political scene have pet theories that they espouse and that they hate it when facts do not bear out their theories. Among these are what Flynn calls "The Five Big Lies". The Five Big Lies are: 1. American women live under a patriarchy. 2. America is the World's leading threat to the environment. 3. America is a racist nation. 4. The US is an imperial power. 5. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. Daniel J. Flynn Flynn quotes his opponents extensively and then rebuts their arguments with his own extensive research from a wide variery of sources (he has over 500 end-notes, often with commentary - not a small task). Flynn does not claim that the US is perfect in any of the above 5 areas. Far from it. He just submits that ...

Tony - where's your editorial staff when you need them? Honestly, I like Tony Brown. I enjoyed his PBS show. I used to listen to him on the radio when I could on WLS in Chicago. But, his books are not nearly as good as I know they can be! What Mama Taught Me: The Seven Core Values of Life  deals with his "Mama", a woman who took him in when he was a baby and his mother was neglecting him. She was not a blood relative, just a woman who saw a baby starving to death due to neglect. He lived with her until her death when he was 12. This book is an attempt on his part to honor her and the simple wisdom she taught him. The Seven Core Values are: 1. Reality: The Value of Being Yourself. 2. Knowledge: The Value of understanding your purpose 3. Race: The Value of honoring your humanity (In this case, the only race his Mama was worried about was worried about was the human race) 4. History: The value of investing in the future 5. Truth: the value of being true to...

St. Margaret of Castello Fascinating The Woman in the Cloak is a novelization of an actual historical figure, St. Margaret of Castelo. She was born a blind, hunchbacked dwarf with a withered leg. Despite these infirmities, and the rejection by her parents, she never feels cursed by God. Rather, she spends most of her relatively short life helping the poor of the small city of Castello. She lives with the beggars and the working poor, offering her help as a midwife, a free nanny and someone who is willing to go beg for food for the destitute. Margaret joins an order of Nuns, but they are not very serious about their vows and she is soon expelled as a troublemaker. So, she joins the Order of Penance of St. Dominic, a mostly male Order. There, she returns to her work on the streets. Eventually, her health fails her and she dies of a hacking, bloody cough. Up to this point, I found this story interesting and moving - here's a lady with the deck stacked against her in so m...

Very good work marred by sloppy editing. Published in 1991 by Facts on File. Civil War and Reconstruction: An Eyewitness History is a good general history of the Civil War. It has good pictures and an easy to read narrative of the war. It also has a lengthy appendix that includes many of the relevant historical documents, such as the Constitutions of the USA and the Confederacy, Lincoln and Jefferson's inaugural addresses, the Gettysburg Address, short biographies of the major personalities of the era and battlefield maps. Confederate General  James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart (1833-64) At the end of each chapter, there is a lengthy section of quotes from participants and commentators of the day. This interesting addition makes the narrative read much quicker, but allows the reader to look at the topic in more detail if he/she chooses. Unfortunately, there are some errors in the book due to poor editing. Two, in particular, bugged me. I used this book to look fo...

Atmosphere fails to carry the day... Originally Published in 19996. Cadillac Jukebox  is part of a series of books written about an ex-New Orleans cop named Dave Robicheaux and his trials and tribulations. This book continues some of the same themes that characterize the series as a whole, such as racism, race relations, the difficulties of being a cop while also being father and husband. James Lee Burke I love the setting and the details Burke puts in his books about New Orleans and the whole Bayou scene. He shows us the seemy side of New Orleans (which is not too hard to do - if you've ever been there you know what I mean. Not that every other city is problem-free, its just that New Orleans seamy side is very public - hey, its one of the attractions). Burke has a great ear for accents, and this makes parts of his books fun to read. However, his books can be depressing. No one rides off happily in the sunset. This particular book concerns a white man jailed in the 1990s ...

Well-researched and thorough As the title clearly tells us, Between Two Fires: American Indians in the Civil War is (primarily) about the contributions of the American Indian to the American Civil War. It starts the reader with some of the early atrocities and misunderstandings that have characterized Indian and White interactions throughout American history. Some are the same things you will read about in any decent high school history text, and some are new for those that are not Indian history "buffs", such as myself. For example, I was not aware of the cruel and deliberate destruction of the Indian populations in California during the Gold Rush of 1849 until I read about it here. The book discusses Indian participation on both sides of the war and their various motivations for joining in the fight. These motivations range from genuine patriotism to wanting to suck up to the government (be it Union or Confederate) for favors to wanting a steady, if small income to j...

A welcome twist to the crime novel. The setting is small town New Hampshire. The secret girlfriend of high school student Jacob Reiser is found dead in the snow and all of the clues point to Jacob. Before and After is a crime novel with a big twist. Rather than following a policeman or the fleeing criminal, it follows the family of the accused and what they go through. The book's title refers to life before and after the crime and how the seemingly perfect family is ripped apart. Rosellen Brown It is told in the first person from the perspectives of mom, dad and sister (interestingly, never from Jacob's point of view). The brother and son they thought they knew is now a stranger. At times, this book is an emotionally abusive roller coaster, but it would be an interesting read for a discussion group concerning the reactions of the family, especially the father and his criminal acts to cover up evidence and his obsession to help his son. I'll give this book a...

Published by HarperAudio in 2007. Narrated by the author, Bernard Goldberg Duration: 7 hours, 27 minutes. Unabridged. Bernard Goldberg , who used to work at CBS news until two opinion pieces that he wrote for the Wall Street Journal nearly 10 years ago made him a persona non grata. What was in these two opinion pieces that caused Dan Rather to say he would never forgive Goldberg and Goldberg's boss to accuse him of "disloyalty"?  He said that CBS and the other major media outlets are biased towards the political left in their reporting. Not the kind of bias that involves meetings and sercret cabals. Instead, it is a sort of groupthink. The sort that never even considers asking the questions that the people with a more conservative worldview would ask. So, most of this bias is from a series of "sins of omission" (to borrow a phrase) rather than an overt plot. As a result, Goldberg wrote his book Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News. ...

Finally, Margolin is back on his game! I've read Margolin's books since I came across The Burning Man but I've been sorely disappointed by many one of them since because they have never approached the power or the storytelling of that book. Phillip Margolin While  Wild Justice  is very much different than The Burning Man , it is a great page turner. I found the story to be inventive, if not twisted. Although, I figured out who the killer was with about 100 pages to go, there were so many plot twists that I doubted my conclusion several times. The ending was tension-filled and full of poetic justice. I'll be reading more. I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here:  Wild Justice (Amanda Jaffe #1) by Phillip Margolin . Reviewed on October 26, 2004.