About DWD and contact info.

DWD
Indianapolis, IN, United States

Family man. School teacher. Avid reader and listener of audiobooks. 20 years+ of posting reviews on books of all sorts. Really, a renaissance man.

 I'm a native Hoosier, a father of two and married for more than 30 years. My wife and I are also proud to have passed on a love of books to our children (and to the family dog that knows some books are quite tasty). Professionally, I am a secondary public school teacher with licenses to teach Spanish, United States history, world history, government and economics.

 My tastes are wide-ranging and include histories, thrillers, mysteries, biographies, political commentaries, a bit of sci-fi, a few westerns and even graphic novels. Good writing is good writing no matter the genre. That being said, I do not read romance, erotica or poetry.

 I first posted reviews in 2001 on a now defunct internet message board just for fun - but the more I started to write reviews the more I realized that it made me read more carefully and with more depth. Since then, I have posted a review on every book I have read except for Brave New World. I don't know why, I just wasn't feeling the need to write that one and I'm still not.

 I was a contributor to the now defunct websites SFsite.com and Audiobook Jukebox.

 Comments can be left on reviews but if you wish to e-mail me, you can reach me at dwdsreviews@gmail.com

 You can also follow DWD's Reviews on Facebook by clicking right here: DWD's Reviews on Facebook.

You can follow on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/#!/DWDsReviews and on Threads here:  https://www.threads.net/@dwds_reviews .  I let you know about the good stuff I have reviewed and sometimes I post something funny (at least I think it is funny...).

*********************************************************************************

You can easily support this blog if you buy things from Amazon.com.  Just click on any of the Amazon links and use it as the "portal" to get to Amazon, find your best deal (the same exact deals that you'll find if you go there directly) and buy.  By using this website as your "portal", DWD's Reviews gets a small referral bonus - no muss, no fuss for you.

So, please think of this site when going to Amazon.com. DWD's children will thank you as well since the proceeds are being directed towards a trip to Chuck E. Cheese.

Popular posts over the last 30 days

BREAKFAST of CHAMPIONS or GOODBYE BLUE MONDAY by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Image
Originally published in 1973. Breakfast of Champions , to me, is the second most well-known Vonnegut novel after Slaughterhouse-Five .  The plot of this story is deceptively simple and the writing style is not complicated - but this story has a lot going on. There are three main characters. One is Dwayne Hoover, a very successful owner of a Pontiac car dealership from Midland, Ohio and numerous other small businesses. He is by far the most successful man in town. He helps bankroll a fine arts festival that the town helps will make them known as a cultural center. He is also going crazy. The fine arts festival has invited Kilgore Trout, a recurring character from other Vonnegut novels, to be the star of the arts festival. Trout is a prolific, but unsuccessful author. He is published, but only by publishers of porn novels. They use his books as a way to make their books seem more legit, kind of like Playboy used "the articles" to make the magazine seem classier. Trout iis so un...
Read more

LIQUID COOL: THE CYBERPUNK DETECTIVE SERIES (Liquid Cool Book 1) by Austin Dragon

Image
Originally published in 2016. Audiobook published by Well-Tailored books in 2024. Read by Shamaan Casey Duration: 11 hours, 54 minutes. Unabridged. Synopsis:  Set in a future megalopolis called Metropolis, Liquid Cool is the story of Cruz, a young hustler that wants to become a private detective. Cruz is mostly known for restoring vintage flying cars, his fedora hat, and his super attractive girlfriend that thinks he can be more than just a street hustler. Cruz really wants to be a private detective, but obtaining a license from the city's convoluted bureaucracy is shockingly expensive. When a local boy turned millionaire offers Cruz the chance to do some detective work on the side, Cruz jumps at the opportunity. He picks up a how-to book from a famous private detective and starts to teach himself how to do the job. After a few of these detective side gigs, an unknown benefactor offers Cruz an office and a secretary just like the ones that all of the film noir detectives have and h...
Read more

BETTY WHITE: A LIFE from BEGINNING to END (kindle) by Hourly History

Image
Published in 2024 by Hourly History. Betty White was a staple of the American entertainment scene for literal decades. She was on multiple highly-rated TV shows, was a regular on several classic game shows, guested on dozens of TV shows, and even made one of the most popular Super Bowl commercials of all time.  This short e-book gives the outline of her nearly 70 year career. It's pretty much a "just the facts" sort of book due to the limitations of this book series. Eech history and biography published by Hourly History is designed to be read in about an hour and the sheer length of Betty White's career means that the depth of this biography is fairly limited.  Even if it is limited, I still found this biography to be enjoyable. I rate this e-book 4 stars our of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Betty White: A Life from Beginning to End .
Read more

MONEY, LIES, and GOD: INSIDE the MOVEMENT to DESTROY AMERICAN DEMOCRACY (audiobook) by Katherine Stewart

Image
Published in 2025 by Bloomsbury Publishing. Read by Patricia Rodriguez. Duration: 11 hours, 36 minutes. Unabridged. In Money, Lies, and God ,  Katherine Stewart takes a hard look at the intertwined worlds of MAGA, Christian Nationalists, big money backers (old money and new tech money), the Claremont Institute , White Replacement Theory folks, militias, and groups like Moms for Liberty.  It looks like a lot to connect but, in reality, it's not too hard. Think of your stereotypical Christian Nationalist mega-church. They're going to be MAGA voters. They are exposed to materials produced by think tanks like the Claremont Institute or Focus on the Family that are financially supported by big money backers. Moms for Liberty will already be there, hyping up the dangers of public schools and certain reading materials. Some megachurches host faith and freedom conferences that are strong on the politics and feature a bit of Christianity. The author, Katherine Stewart I was distressed...
Read more

CHECHEN WARS: A HISTORY from BEGINNING to END (kindle) by Hourly History

Image
Published in 2023 by Hourly History. I chose to read this short history about Chechnya in order to be a bit more informed about Putin's wars in Chechnya and then apply that knowledge to the war in Ukraine. What I read does not inspire confidence. Chechnya is an unfortunate victim of geography - it lies in a buffer zone between traditional great powers - the Russians, the Ottoman Turks, and the Persians. Even worse, they are on a natural land bridge between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea. Throw in a religious difference between Russia and the Chechens and you have even more trouble. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Chechnya made a serious effort at independence that ended up in multiple military incursions by the Russians and decades of on and off irregular warfare (think guerrilla warfare plus outright terrorism). For their part, the Russians responded with their own forms of irregular warfare - assassinations, possible false flag operations, and more. As I read this, th...
Read more

EXIT STAGE LEFT: THE SNAGGLEPUSS CHRONICLES (graphic novel) Written by Mark Russell. Illustrated by Mike Feehan

Image
Published by DC Comics in 2018. Part of the Hannah-Barbera Beyond series. 2019 GLAAD Media Award winner for Outstanding Comic Book Synopsis: DC Comics and Hanna-Barbera set out to reimagine some of their late 1950s to 1970s Saturday morning television cartoons, including The Jetsons, The Flintstones, Scooby Doo, Wacky Races, and Space Ghost. Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles is the last installment of the series. The graphic novel is set in the Red Scare/McCarthyism era. Congressional subcommittees are looking for Communists in all fields, but they are particularly concerned about Communist entertainers who may be negatively influencing Americans. Snagglepuss is a very successful New York City playwright. He lives in a world where humans and anthropomorphic animals interact as equals. He moved to New York from Mississippi years ago, but he still speaks in a Southern accent and often uses pithy folksy aphorisms. He is married to an actress, but that is a sham marriage. In rea...
Read more

UNCOMMON VALOR: A STORY of RACE, PATRIOTISM, and GLORY in the FINAL BATTLES of the CIVIL WAR by Melvin Claxton and Mark Puls

Image
Published in 2005 by John Wiley and Sons, Inc. The Emancipation Proclamation was effective on January 1, 1863 - it included a provision that former slaves were to "be received into the armed service of the United States". The Union Army was a little slow to enact this provision, but by 1864 there were plenty of African American Union soldiers ready to go into the field. Uncommon Valor follows one of those units during the Petersburg campaign of 1864-1865. This history primarily follows Christian Fleetwood , an African American Baltimore clerk. Fleetwood was born free, but living in a slave state was a constant reminder of his second class status. He had been considering joining the army for a long while, trying to determine if it would be a blow for freedom, or just choosing to support one oppressive regime in order to fight an even more oppressive regime. If that was the case, he might as well sit it out and let both sides clobber one another. Sgt. Major Christian Fleetwoo...
Read more

THE SWEDISH EMPIRE: A HISTORY from BEGINNING to END (kindle) by Hourly History

Image
Published in 2021 by Hourly History Note: Hourly History specializes in short histories and biographies that take about an hour to read. Generally, I read them to learn more about topics that I would never read about in a full sized history. Topics like the Swedish Empire, for example. As a history buff, I see references to the Swedish Empire from time to time - an empire of Lutherans coming out of the far north, fighting in several wars, and then retreating back to Sweden. I also recognized the name of one of its kings, Adolphus Gustavus because, let's face it, it's a heckuva name. This short history does a pretty good job of explaining the pretty short history of the Swedish Empire (1611-1721). It explains how the Swedes raised troops, fought in wars against its neighbors, reforms that were undertaken by the king, the Swedes' brief foray into building a North American colony, and the end of the Swedish Empire. I rate this e-book 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon...
Read more

FORGOTTEN TRAIL (National Parks Mystery, Book3) (audiobook) by Claire Kells

Image
Published by Dreamscape Media in 2023. Read by Cady Zuckerman. Duration: 9 hours, 26 minutes. Unabridged. Synopsis: Forgotten Trail is the third book featuring Felicity Harland of the Investigative Services Branch. If you are not familiar with the ISB, join the club - I had no idea that it was the "FBI" of the National Parks Service. If the local park can't deal with it, they call in the ISB. That always include murders. Harland is partners with a park ranger nicknamed Hux. He is a big, strong guy. Harland is a short (but very tough and determined) lady. There is always of undercurrent of romantic attraction between the two, but there is caution about acting on this attraction for fear of messing up their friendship and very strong working relationship. Her dog rounds out the trio. In this series, ISB is called out to a different park for each book. It lets the reader get a feel for a new park in every book. In this book, a brutal murder has taken place in a room at a br...
Read more

THE WORLD ACCORDING to STAR WARS (audiobook) by Cass R. Sunstein

Image
Published in May of 2016 by HarperAudio. Read by Kaleo Griffith Duration: 5 hours, 44 minutes Unabridged Besides being a Law Professor at Harvard and a former member of the Obama Administration, Cass R. Sunstein is a massive fan of all things Star Wars.  The World According to Star Wars is a wide-ranging and mostly interesting discussion using Star Wars as a way to explain aspects of the American and world political scene, economics and family dynamics.  He starts with a little history of how Star Wars came to be, including George Lucas's struggles in writing the screenplay, the way the actors all thought they were acting in an interesting movie that was certain to be a big flop and the reluctance by the studios to really push the movie. But, despite the odds, Star Wars became a massive phenomenon - the series is the all-time leader in multiple categories and the hits just keep on coming. Sunstein explores why it became a big hit, looking at the timing of its release...
Read more