DWD's Reviews

Published by Random House Audio in 2008 Read by Titus Welliver Duration: 4 hours, 40 minutes Unabridged At the end of Appaloosa, the first book in this series, Hitch and Cole have parted ways. Hitch ends up in the town of Resolution, a mining/lumbering town with some small unsuccessful ranches/farms scattered around. Hitch is hired by the owner of a local hotel/saloon to keep the peace inside the saloon. Soon enough, Cole shows up. He is on the outs with his girlfriend again. She has issues - she just has to throw herself at the most powerful man in the room and Cole had finally had enough of it and killed a man she was with. For Cole, this is devastating. He has always followed the law, even if it is arbitrary law that he has written himself. Killing this man broke the law and Cole is now a man who cannot follow his own code. So, Cole just hangs out with Hitch and ponders the meaning of laws and rules and the Social Contract for half of the book. In the mean...

        Watching a Tragedy Unfold Published by Thomas Dunne Books in 2011 During the long, hot, bloody summer of 1864 the Union Army of the Potomac and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia found themselves in a long series of battles. General Ulysses S. Grant changed the situation on the front by changing the strategy of the Army of the Potomac and the way it dealt with the Army of Northern Virginia. Rather than fighting a battle, withdrawing from one another, regrouping and then seeking out the enemy again Grant just kept his army in constant contact with Lee. His plan was simple - he knew that the Union forces had a lot more soldiers and a near limitless supply of ammunition and food, at least when compared to Lee's army. The math was simple - Grant could afford to lose more of everything so long as he was depleting Lee at the same time.  Eventually, this settled down into a siege around Richmond and its suburb, Petersburg. Petersburg was a train h...

Published in 2008. Armageddon in Retrospect is a collection of short stories (and one letter and one rambling, but enjoyable,  speech) focuses on war and the folly of war. Many of the stories deal with World War II and prisoners of war, a theme echoed in Slaughterhouse-Five.  The almost 40 foot tall mural of Vonnegut in Indianapolis.  The book begins with an entertaining introduction by Mark Vonnegut, Kurt's son followed by an astonishingly flippant letter from Kurt to his family telling them that he had been a prisoner of war since the Battle of the Bulge but now he was liberated and headed back to Indiana. The letter is actually reproduced as a picture so you can see it how he typed it on the stationary that he typed it. The letter is followed by the last speech he ever wrote, appropriately delivered in his hometown of Indianapolis by his son after Kurt Vonnegut's death. The short stories are up and down, as all short stories collections are. But, Vonnegut's ...

A western for grown-ups. It's not about the guns, horses or bullets. It's about friendship, sex and, ultimately, love. Published by Random House in 2005 Read by Titus Welliver Duration: 4 hours, 57 minutes Unabridged There are four main characters in Appaloosa : Marshal Virgil Cole, Deputy Everett Hitch, Bragg (a rancher/hotel owner) and Mrs. French, a pathetic woman that leeches onto powerful men out of some deep seeded need that we never quite have explained. Suffice it to say, Mrs. French is a survivor because she uses sex to endear herself to the most powerful man in her immediate area.  Robert B. Parker loves to explore the sometimes complicated psychology of men and women and the way they express friendship and love, both platonic and amorous. His books are full of people (mostly women, but not always) that claim to be in love but really they are psychologically needy and act out sexually in strange, disruptive ways.  There are four main characters in this s...

     When Harry Met Mickey Published by Hachette Audio in 2008. Read by Peter Giles Duration: 11 hours, 54 minutes Unabridged At the end of The Lincoln Lawyer Mickey Haller was gutshot, a horrific injury and one that is difficult to survive, let alone recover from.  At the beginning of the second book in the series, Mickey Haller is not practicing law. Due to his injury, Haller has developed an addiction to pain killers and has been in rehab getting clean. As he descended into addiction he has driven his ex-wife farther away and made that relationship even more difficult. Despite the drugs, Haller was able to recognize that he was in no position to practice law. Then, one day out of the blue he gets a phone call from the chief judge on Los Angeles. A fellow defense attorney named Jerry Vincent has been murdered and Mickey Haller is supposed to take on all of his cases. Haller and the Vincent used to cover for one another on occasion and they listed on...

Published in 2012 by Random House LLC Before we go any further, I must tell you that I am a public school teacher that teaches in a school that is pretty similar to the one featured in  I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Have Ever Had . I have been teaching for 25 years. What looks like a publicity stunt by an out-of-work actor trying to jump start a career is really a sincere attempt to get a taste of what being a real teacher is all about.  Danza starts the book explaining that he was at a low point in his career, having just had his TV talk show cancelled, but he had seriously considered being a teacher when he was younger and had used his platform on his TV talk show to promote teachers and provide "School Room Makeovers" and that had re-kindled his interest. So, he was talking about this idea he had of becoming a teacher and someone told him that it would be a good idea for a reality show. Personally, I never heard of the show until I had heard of the boo...

Published in 2012 by Post Hypnotic Press Originally published in 1991 Read by Lisa Bunting Duration: 6 hours, 33 minutes Unabridged Gail Bowen's Joanne Kilbourn character carries on into her second book, Murder at the Mendel . Life has changed for her - she has moved her family to Saskatoon in Saskatchewan to be close to her daughter in college and to teach at the same university.  The local art center was called the Mendel (I say was because it has since been slated to close and move to a new location with a new name) and a childhood friend of Joanne Kilbourne who has since become a controversial artist has an exhibit at the Mendel. The artist, named Sally Love, and Kilbourn used to be very close but after the suicide of Love's father when they were 13 years old, Sally Love moved away. Kilbourn and Love renew their friendship. Sally Love's exhibition has brought a number of protesters out because of her art. She has a lot of art with overt sexual themes, includ...

Published in May of 2008 In the previous book in the Joe Pickett series, In Plain Sight , Joe lost his job as a Wyoming game warden. In this book Joe gets his job back, sort of. Governor Rulon, a man who delights in doing things that irritate bureaucracies, has offered him a chance to work as a Game Warden "without portfolio" (as they might say in diplomatic circles). Joe is an independent agent, working for the Governor but the Governor wants plausible deniability for everything Joe does. The Governor offers this to Joe because of a situation that developed in Yellowstone National Park. A local attorney went into a part of the park that is in Idaho, shot four campers and then turned himself in. The campers all worked for Zephyr, a private contractor that runs the hotels, the gift shops and does the maintenance around the park. But, due to a loophole in the law described in detail  here  he was not able to be tried for anything. Due to federal law and his...

Published in May of 2015 by Blackstone Audio Read by Joe Barrett Duration: 8 hours, 29 minutes Unabridged During the Atlanta campaign in the Summer of 1864 Confederate President Jefferson Davis changed the nature of the campaign with the simple stroke of a pen. Up to that point, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman was slowly forcing his way southward towards Atlanta by way of a series of flanking maneuvers. His opponent, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston, was slowly retreating, hoping to find an opening for a fatal strike against his opponent. Unfortunately for him, Sherman's mistakes were too small to be exploited and eventually Johnston found himself backed up against Atlanta itself. Oliver O. Howard (1830-1909). Photo by Matthew Brady. At this point, President Davis intervened and removed Johnston on July 17, replacing him with John Bell Hood. While Johnston was cautious, Hood was by nature an aggressive general. Also, given the circumstances of Johnston'...

Published in 2013 by Ernie Lindsey Read by DJ Holte Duration: 10 hours, 34 minutes Unabridged First things first - this is a weird book. It was written to be that way. The author, Ernie Lindsey, set out to write a book in which the main character is totally unlikable but by the end of the book the reader will be rooting for this unlikable fellow. Did he succeed? Well, Steve Pendragon is certainly unlikable. It's not like he is an evil man. Rather, he is a clueless, thoughtless man. He keeps on flirting with his neighbor long after he should have gotten the clue that she did not want him to flirt with her any longer (in an office environment it would have careened into sexual harassment territory long before). It's not like he backs her up in the corner and puts his hands on her. He just does creepy things like have her mail delivered to his house so he has to walk it to her door every day. He stares at her from his window as she sunbathes. He gets into her car to ...

  Published in 2006. I have been reading C.J. Box's series about Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett for the last five years now after having someone recommend him to me on Amazon. The problem is, I have made absolutely no effort to read them in order - I just read them as I find them. So, I have read #1 and #9-13 plus several of Box's standalone novels. In Plain Sight is the first one that I felt a little lost in it as I jumped in but I got things figured out after 50 or 60 pages and still enjoyed another adventure with Joe Pickett. In this book, Joe is dealing with a new boss at the state level who is much more bureaucrat than he is game warden. While they butt heads, the town of Saddlestring is being torn apart by an internal family feud with the Scarlett family. The Scarletts are one of the original white families to move into the area and they have been stunningly successful over the generations. They have the biggest ranch with the best land. They are on all of the...

          A Brilliant Essay Published by Mission Audio in April of 2013. Originally published in 1963 in various newspapers and magazines Read by Dion Graham Duration: 51 minutes This letter was written in response to a group of African American preachers who were calling for an end to the nonviolent resistance to the racist order in Birmingham, Alabama. This included sit-ins, marches and violating a court order to end all such demonstrations. King was arrested for violating this order (yes, he was arrested for speaking his mind and being involved in a peaceful assembly - a double violation of his First Amendment rights) and kept is squalid conditions in the overcrowded Birmingham jail. Recreation of the Birmingham Jail cell where this letter was written at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. Photo by Adam Jones, Ph.D.   Letter from Birmingham Jail was written, at first, on scrap bits of paper and smuggled out by way...

Published in December of 2013 by Hachette Audio. Unabridged Read by Peter Giles Duration: 11 hours, 49 minutes. For me, Michael Connelly's "Lincoln Lawyer" has always been second best to his mainstay Harry Bosch series. Now, that is no insult because I am a huge fan of Michael Connelly and his second best is better than most author's best effort. This book was quite entertaining throughout and an enjoyable listen. A Lincoln Town Car. Photo by Bull-Doser. The Gods of Guilt  begins with Los Angeles criminal attorney Mickey Haller wondering how he is going to make payroll for his struggling little law firm. He can't get any leaner than he is - he has no permanent office (he works out of his Lincoln Town Car, thus the term "Lincoln Lawyer"), he trades legal work for office space if he actually has to use a physical office and his driver is working off a legal bill by driving.   When he gets a call to defend a murder suspect who has the cash to...