DWD's Reviews

The Series Continues in Its Winning Ways Originally published in March of 2011 I am a giant fan of C.J. Box and have been ever since a fan of Robert Crais left a comment on one of my reviews of an Elvis Cole book that told me to check out C.J. Box's Joe Pickett series. I am now happily, but haphazardly, working my way through the series.  Because I am bouncing around, I already knew a lot about Nate Romanowski before I read this book. I don't know if my approach to the series has caused this, but I am not a fan of the  Romanowski character. I suppose it's a staple of the genre - the principled good guy has a rougher, tougher guy who has his back. Elvis Cole has Joe Pike. Spenser has Hawk. Heck, I guess you could even note that Han Solo has Chewbacca. Despite the long history of this type of character, I would just as soon read more about good but not overly tough guy Pickett than his nearly unstoppable buddy. That being said, this is still a really good book. Th...

  Published by Alfred A. Knopf in September of 2014 I have read many histories of the Revolutionary War and most only tell the story of the build-up to the war from the American side and only describe Britain's political scene as it was interpreted by the colonists. To be fair, it was often misinterpreted by the colonists. But, in reality, there were two sides to this fight and it was not just the colonists that were misinterpreting the political signals of their brethren across the Atlantic. The British government had no idea how far their colonial governments had evolved along democratic lines (compared to a modern democracy they were all quite restrictive but when compared to Britain they were quite open).  The Boston Tea Party, December 16, 1773. Nick Bunker picks this moment to be the point of no return between Britain and the colonists. In fact, it seemed that often Britain was barely aware of the colonies because it had too many other crises...

Published in 2013 by GraphicAudio Multi-cast performance Duration: about 1 hour GraphicAudio continues to crank out high-quality audiobooks with their own twist. Typically, GraphicAudio adapts a book to become more like an old-fashioned radio play with its own theme music, special effects and lots of different actors playing all of the characters. Peacer: Unmasked is a prequel to the other books in this growing series. They are set in a future San Francisco - a San Francisco that was heavily damaged in a massive earthquake. Democracy was tossed out in favor of a dictatorship that keeps things under control. The main character is Michael Aeres, a former soldier turned Peacer, or a policeman with B.A.S.S. (Bay  Area Security Service), the company that serves as San Francisco's government. B.A.S.S. officers have almost unlimited authority to act in the name of keeping the public peace, including murder. When multiple members of a protest group turn up dead, Aeres stakes out...

     The Fundamentals. Published in 2009 by Kaplan Publishing Although I am going into my 25th year of teaching, I enjoyed the advice that was intended for new teachers offered in See Me After Class . It is always good to go back to the basics and make sure that you remind yourself of the fundamentals. The strength of the book is just that - it deals in fundamentals. Tricks to get you through the first day with its ever-changing class lists, reminders that we do indeed learn from our mistakes, warning of the danger of falling behind in grading papers (including giving yourself enough time to grade big things before the report card grades are due), the danger of sending too many kids out of class, remembering that all kids do not respond to incentives or consequences the same way, advice to get those project assignments turned in, and a part that I particularly liked: an overview of some basic  different types of students you are going to run into ("Low Perf...