DWD's Reviews

Middle of the Road Addition to the Series Published by Vision (Hatchette Book Group) in 2011 While I am a devoted and enthusiastic fan of Connelly's Harry Bosch series, I am merely a fan of the Mickey Haller Lincoln Lawyer series. On the whole, it just lacks the same brooding intensity of the Bosch series - that sense that the world is not right and Harry Bosch is on the case to sort out at least one little part of it. In The Fifth Witness , hot shot defense lawyer Mickey Haller has fallen on rough times during a recession and he is forced to take foreclosure defense cases to keep his practice healthy. Fortunately for Haller, the Los Angeles area has plenty of foreclosures and not all of them were done "by the book" so there is a way for a talented lawyer to earn a living. Michael Connelly When one of Haller's foreclosure clients is accused of killing the bank officer who has been in charge of foreclosing on her home. She loudly insists that she is innocen...

To the center of the galaxy and back Re-published by Blackstone Audio in 2012. Read by Tom Weiner Duration: 7 hours, 59 minutes Unabridged First published in 1976, A World Out of Time is a grand adventure that literally follows its hero, Corbell,  across the galaxy and across three million years of time as he reacts to one twist after another that eventually finds him carrying the fate of the entire world on his shoulders. The story begins with Corbell being revived from being frozen in a cryogenic chamber almost 200 years after he had been frozen in the 1970s because he had in incurable form of cancer. He is not in his own body, however. The patterns of his mind have been recovered and scanned into the "mindwiped" empty brain of a criminal by a totalitarian government called "The State." The State controls the entire world and is interested in interplanetary travel. The great distances and times involved have compelled The State to revive some of the ...

Easy to love and easy to hate Published by Simon and Schuster Audioworks in 1987. Performed by Robert Vaughn Duration: 3 hours Abridged Note: The 2007 re-release of The Cat Who Walks Through Walls clocks in at just over 13.5 hours, so this  3-hour-long 1987 abridgment is undoubtedly heavily abridged, even considering that acclaimed actor Robert Vaughn is a relatively quick reader. Books like The Cat Who Walks Through Walls are hard to describe and easy to love and hate. This is a soaring piece of fiction that takes the listener into a fully-developed world that has enough internal coherence and relationship to our current world that the reader can feel comfortable (there are Volvo vehicles, they stop at a Sears store, etc.) On the other hand, the action is frenetic to the point of chaos (this may be due to the abridgment, but upon reading an online summary, it may not) and the interaction of the characters is often witty but unrealistic to the point of being laughab...

Audio version published by Skyboat Road Company in 2008. Multicast Performance Duration: 16 hours, 25 minutes Unabridged. The premise behind Resonance is simple - the magnetic poles are starting to switch and it is starting to cause frogs to be born deformed, messing up migration patterns and kill people who are in "hotspots" (areas where the reversal has already started). Scudiere does a great job of creating believable characters and her five main characters are quite strong. We have two young doctors from the Centers for Disease Control and their boss (played by Arte Johnson of Laugh-In fame), a young narcissistic geologist and a young biologist who specializes in frogs. These five race around the country documenting "hotspots" and trying to figure out why people exposed to them die. As they travel, we learn a lot more about the characters and a romance starts to bloom. Well, it would start to bloom except for two things: 1) the entire world suddenly sh...

Published by Random House Audio in 1999 Read by Anthony Heald Duration: 2 hours, 59 minutes. Abridged Admiral Ackbar Probably no one, even George Lucas himself, knows more about the Star Wars universe than prolific author Michael A. Stackpole. He has authored comics and novels and helped to build the entire post- Return of the Jedi storyline. Isard's Revenge is set several years after the last movie. The New Republic (the government that took over from the  Rebel Alliance in Episodes IV, V and VI) is mopping up the various bits and pieces of what is left of the Empire. Several warlords have set themselves up here and there and the New Republic is negotiating or fighting with them. In this storyline, a warlord named Ysanne Isard, the former Director of Imperial Intelligence, presumed defeated and dead, has returned. She has put together a rather complicated plot to draw Wedge Antilles (newly promoted to General by Admiral Ackbar) and his Rogue Squadron into a trap so s...

What this book is and what it is not Published by Tyndale House Publishers in 1997.  I picked this book up somewhere along the way and I am sure when I bought it I thought that it was something that it is not. What I thought the book was: -I thought it was a Graham Hancock-type (ironically, Graham Hancock is referred to in the text of this book) look into some of the oddities of the Bible. What really happened at Jericho? What does the archaeological record say? Where did Moses and the Israelites cross the Red Sea? Are there possible explanations for a parting of the Red Sea besides a divine one? What about those that claim that Jesus did not really die on the cross? Is the popularly referred to "Swooning" of Jesus an explanation for his resurrection. If not, why not. The kind of stuff you get on the History Channel from time to time That is not what this book is (although if anyone knows of such a cool book, let me know!) What this book is is a compil...

This movie swings for the fence with every pitch... Directed by Wolfgang Petersen   Released in 1985 This movie swings for the fence with every pitch. If you are not a baseball fan, that is saying that a batter swings for the fence means that he only goes for home runs and does not try to just get on base.   And, for you baseball fans out there, you know that the long ball hitter that swings for the fence with every pitch strikes out an awful lot. But, the fans love him anyway because when he gets hold of a good one it's a home run! This movie is a lot like a long ball hitter - the director tries to go for a home run on so many levels that you end up alternating between shaking your head at the cheesiness of it all and wiping at a tear at the way some of the scenes work so perfectly. The premise is that two enemy fighter pilots in a bitter intergalactic war shoot each other down over some horrible planet that will barely support life. One is human. ...

  Published by Dh Audio in 1982. Read by Samantha Eggar Duration: approximately 3 hours. Abridged Many years ago, in the early 80s, I was a devoted reader of all things Heinlein. Somewhere along the way I guess I lost interest (I don't remember), but I found this audiobook version of Friday and thought I'd re-live the old days a bit. From the product description on the back of the box I did not remember having read the book, but soon enough, I vaguely remembered the plot a bit. So, how was it re-visiting Heinlein? It was okay. The story line was not nearly as interesting as the backdrop (a fragmented United States - how I'd love to see a short history of this vision of earth plus a short description of the technology - Heinlein accurately describes the internet - not bad for 1982). Friday is a genetically modified human being created from bits and pieces from all around the world. She lives in a remarkably open society that openly discriminates against...

Long stretches of tedium punctuated by episodes of laugh-out-loud fun Published by Macmillan Audio in 2005. Read by Lorelei King. Duration: 7 hours, 48 minutes Unabridged. Eleven on Top is my fifth in the Stephanie Plum series, having previously read 1-3 and 8. Technically, 1-3 were enjoyed thoroughly as books on tape. The fact that I heard them all as audiobooks is a source of my frustration with Eleven on Top . You see, the first three that I enjoyed were read by the actress Lori Petty. In my mind, Petty accurately nailed the Jersey Girl attitude and accent of Stephanie. Lorelei King, a veteran reader does a good job with all of the characters but Stephanie - she plays Stephanie fairly accent-neutral. While the dialogue works without the New Jersey accent, it crackles and zings with it. I know that King is the choice for Evanovich to read, but I think that she is a letdown after listening to Petty's work. Secondly, the fact that I 'read' this book as ...

Based on some dubious assumptions Published by Pocket Books in 2006. Brad Thor's thriller Blowback delivers as far as the international thrills and chills go. Main character Scot Harvath is a counter-terrorism expert on the tail of an Al-Qaeda operative who catches wind of something new - a plague that is being resurrected from the ancient past to be used against all non-Muslims. Harvath pursues his leads across Europe and the Middle East - that part is lots of fun. I have issues with Thor's treatment of Muslims and his main thesis. **SPOILER ALERT** Every Muslim in the book, with the exception of two, is either a brazen hypocrite or a crazed religious fanatic. One of the good Muslim is killed by the virus being spread the fanatics and the other is shot by the hypocrites. There are literally dozens of Muslims in the book - and only two are decent people? Thor's book rests on the premise that the Ottoman Empire is trying to resurrect itself by usin...

It was good, but not great. Published by D.C. Comics in 2004. I am not the biggest comic book fan. I have barely set foot in a real comic book shop, so I don't even know if the 'Comic Book Guy' on 'The Simpsons' is realistic or not. Continuity means nothing to me. Being a history teacher, I was more intrigued by the history part of the story. (Speaking of continuity, I know for a fact that Superman was fighting Nazis during WWII, just like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck - I've seen the movies!) However, I've read some of the big stuff ( Dark Knight I and II, Red Son and a few more). I was dimly aware of some of the heroes featured in this one, which makes sense since JSA was originally intended to promote the lesser known heroes). This one was interesting, but in the end, not as good as I had hoped. Learning the new characters was fairly easy, but telling them apart in their street clothes was darn near impossible with the exception of Clar...

Entertaining but fails to live up to the title Published by Metropolitan Books in 2004. Thomas Frank's stated purpose in What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America is to tell how Conservatives won the hearts of the working class, the middle class and the rich all at the same time. His answer is that rich, Republican elites throw up red herring issues (abortion and gay marriage are two that he mentions frequently) that bamboozle the working poor and the middle class into supporting them and their greater cause of Free Market Capitalism and International Free Trade even though Capitalism and treaties such as NAFTA inevitably beat the little guy into a pulp (his thought, not mine). Thomas Frank Yep. That's about it, although Mr. Frank says it much better than I just did. He also never goes into detail about why Capitalism and Free Trade are both evil (he just assumes you agree, I suppose), although he is very critical o...

An important tale to be told - unfortunately this one fails to tell it well enough Published by First Second in 2006. Deogratias is the name of a young man from Rwanda. The story dances back and forth between pre- and post-1994 massacre Rwanda. Pre-massacre Deogratias is a likeable young man. Post-massacre Deogratias is insane. As one reads this graphic novel one finds out what drove him insane - in a climax that is not all that surprising or shocking (just sad), especially if one knows any of the detail of the Rwanda massacre. An image from the graphic novel Great works take the story of one person or group of people in a tragic situation and somehow make their story universal. For example, the Civil War movie Glory is the story of the first all-Black Federal regiment in the Civil War - it is also the story of every soldier - black or white, Union or Confederate. In Saving Private Ryan , the Tom Hanks character epitomizes the average man stuck in a terrible situa...

After seeing the movie I was expecting much more First published in 1965. If you've seen Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger tear into one another in the movie version of this book you may be expecting a few more fireworks than this book delivers. Heck, even if all you know of the story is the TV show with Carrol O'Connor and Howard Rollins than you have already seen more fireworks than this book delivers. And why is that? Because in the book version of In the Heat of the Night , Virgil Tibbs is a proud man but he often fails to show the fire that both Poitier and Rollins brought to the character. John Ball (1911-1988) Throw in a near-total lack of action (there are two small fight scenes, but they are almost incidental to the plot) with about 50 pages worth of driving around a small Southern town in the middle of the night and you can quickly figure out why the movie version remains popular, with more than 50 reviews on Amazon.com at the time of this writing, w...

Sometimes funny, sometimes just the rants of a cranky old man  Performed by the author, George Carlin Published by Highbridge Company, April 1, 2001 Duration: 2 hours, 29 minutes abridged G eorge Carlin (1937-2008) was an iconic stand-up comic known for his cutting edge humor. This audiobook is not really either, however. I am not saying it does not have its funny moments - it certainly does. But, large stretches of it sound more like a cranky old man spouting off than an actual attempt at humor. George Carlin (1937-2008) Funny parts of Napalm and Silly Putty include his observations on cats, dogs, grocery stores, "saving" the environment, health nuts and driving. Those are actually full blown comedy bits  and remind me quite a bit of Dave Barry with generous quantities of superfluous cursing thrown in for spice. Sadly, for a comic known for his edginess, none of these topics are particularly edgy. His attempts at edginess come with rants about businessmen, or...

Not the best of Bernard Lewis Published January 24th 2002 by Oxford University Press, USA Hardcover, 192 pages I've read two other books by Lewis and found both of them to be much more comprehensive and satisfying than this one. My dissatisfaction stems from the title. The title What Went Wrong? implies a discussion of how the Islam world went from being the most advanced culture on the planet to one of the most insular and, in many ways, most backwards cultures on the planet. While such a discussion is implied, it is barely touched upon in the body of the book. Lewis finally gets to this general topic in his conclusion. He notes, "By all standards that matter in the modern world-economic development and job creation, literacy and educational and scientific achievement, political freedom and respect for human rights - what was once a mighty civilization has indeed fallen low." (p. 152) Bernard Lewis ...

Published in 2012 by Thomas Nelson Larry P. Arnn is the president of Hillsdale College and I suppose I should tell you that I receive Hillsdale's free monthly bulletin,  Imprimis , which features excerpts of speeches given by guests at Hillsdale College. President Arnn is featured annually so I was fairly familiar with his work before I picked up this book. In fact, that was the reason I picked it up in the first place. Arnn's key point in this book is that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are highly inter-related and that the efforts of some politicians and academics to separate them are not only incorrect but are also symptomatic of a larger effort to redefine and dilute the rights and governments described in both documents. Arnn makes this point early and brilliantly in simple and soaring language. He demonstrates that the series of complaints against King George III in the Declaration describe how the King did not act as a faithful representa...

Published in 1991 by Silver Burdett Press 118 pages of text. 8 pages of timelines, sources and an index at the end. This book is part of a larger series (The History of the Civil War Series). It is very readable with a good balance of national history versus the biography of Swedish immigrant inventor John Ericsson, with the glaring exception I note below. John Ericsson (1803-1889) was almost the stereotypical nutty professor type inventor - he never properly patented many of his best inventions. Ericsson built a great number of inventions, but unlike Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison, he never really built any industries around them. He seemed to have trouble with personal relationships and was happiest when the was building in his laboratory. John Ericsson (1803-1889) Among other things, Ericsson invented a screw propeller, a "caloric" engine and, most importantly, he was the designer of the famed U.S.S. Monitor, the first ironclad in the Union navy, part...