DWD's Reviews

Entertaining and oddball - loved the Brad Pitt character To make it short, I'll mention what I liked: -I liked the use of commentary by Turkish and Tommy during the movie - they serve as the de facto narrators. -I liked the rapid-cut intro and the way the director used the security cameras to show us the progress of the diamond thieves during the opening credits. -I really liked the Brad Pitt character. Take full advantage of your DVD's ability to make subtitles because you'll need it with all of the accents - especially Brad Pitt's. -the dog was fun (and hungry). Dennis Farina -I liked the way all of the characters were sleazy and yet markedly different from one another. -I like the fact that the DVD includes deleted scenes with commentary. I did not like the fact that the commentary usually did not tell me why the scene was deleted. I rate this movie 4 stars out of 5. This DVD can be found on Amazon.com here: Snatch (Special Edition) DVD . ...

My first foray into P.J. O'Rourke's books Published by Brilliance Audio Duration: 5 hours, 48 minutes Read by Dick Hill Unabridged I've read some of P.J. O'Rourke's columns and have heard an interview or two so I knew that I would most likely find one of his books to be most interesting. To begin with, I found Peace Kills: America's Fun New Imperialism mostly dead-on accurate and depressing. Observations about the War in Bosnia, human nature in general and Israel were factually interesting but mostly deflating. Not that I am overly optimistic about human nature (being both a history major and a Lutheran has given me a fairly low opinion about the character of humanity) but P.J.'s account was even getting to me. But, in the middle it picks up - ironically with his description of 9/11 and the days that followed in Washington, D.C. I found his observations to be keen, interesting and, in an odd way, hopeful. His descriptions of the pro-Palestinian...

A thinking person's action adventure novel Set in Pakistan and Afghanistan in the weeks following the 9/11 attacks, The Warlord's Son features Skelly, a middle-aged foreign correspondent who has decided to come out or retirement to find one last big story. It also concerns his "fixer", or translator, Najeeb - the outcast son of a border area warlord and Najeeb's girlfriend Daliya. The story passes from one to the other and the reader gets quite a bit of insight into the culture of this border area. The action is quick and good when it happens and the reader experiences the intrigue of all of the overlapping political, financial and cultural interests of the area. I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Warlord's Son by Dan Fesperman . Reviewed on November 6, 2009.

Comments from a veteran teacher Published in 2009 by NAL Hardcover This is my twentieth year of teaching. I've taught in the inner city, way out in the country in a school surrounded by cornfields and currently teach in a school that is a crazy mix that ranges from urban ghetto to suburban McMansion neighborhoods. There is nothing in Crazy Like a Fox: One Principal's Triumph in the Inner City that I can disagree with so far as the methods that Chavis espouses. He introduces an extreme quantity of discipline, accountability and rigor to an inner city environment that is seriously lacking in those three traits. He preaches respect for private property, pride in your school and rewards students with cash and prizes for doing well. He blows up the concept of the mega-high school (I teach in one and it does NOT work well) and keeps his school small so that it has a family feel - everyone knows everyone. Dr. Ben Chavis But, this is not a traditional public school. It is ...

This thriller hits the same notes over and over again but it sucks the reader in Turbulence is not a subtle book - Nance hits on two themes over and over again with an enthusiasm akin to that of Animal from the Muppet Show pounding on a set of drums. Those two themes are: airlines often have poor customer service that needlessly aggravates the travelling public. Secondly, airline employees can be poorly trained and inadequate to the challenges of international travel. However, he does make an interesting little novel here about an airplane full of people who have been pushed too far by rude employees, senseless delays on the runways and incompetent decision-making by the pilots. Throw in a violent misunderstanding and you've got the makings of a passenger mutiny and a sharp thriller. 4 out of 5 stars. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Turbulence . Reviewed on December 4, 2009.

An enjoyable read from one of the true nice guys in American sports broadcasting Published in 2009 by Thomas Nelson Inc. I' ve listened to Eli Gold for years as one of the radio (and from time to time TV) voices of NASCAR. He's always come across as a nice guy and a straight shooter who is not out to grind any axes. From Peanuts to the Pressbox: Insider Sports Stories from a Life Behind the Mic is Eli Gold's story of how he went from being a peanut vendor at Madison Square Garden to being a nationally known sports announcer. Eli tells it in an entertaining, light-hearted style and keeps it classy by not airing anyone's dirty laundry. He does include lots of funny and interesting stories, including his tale of the day that he went to the airport with David Pearson, Bobby Allison's distinctive ritual when he flew his plane home after a win and the strangest thing Richard Petty ever signed (a duck!). The revelation that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is a...

Published by HighBridge Audio. Originally broadcast in 1993. Multicast performance. Duration: approximately 5 hours. Star Wars, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (The Original Radio Drama) was created for National Public Radio and originally broadcast in 1993. It features several members of the original movie cast including Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Anthony Daniels (C3PO) and Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian). John Lithgow steps in and does a strong job with Yoda. Vader suffers with Brock Peters as the voice - not because he did anything wrong, but because he is just not James Earl Jones. George Lucas opened up the Star Wars vault and let NPR use the original soundtrack and original special effects - and they use them well. The soundtrack punches up the story and the special effects are used to move the story along as often as they are used to add a little detail to the experience. The story is well told and has the added bonus of being able to take a little more tim...

"the nation's traditional news organizations are being transformed into tabloid news organizations..." (p. 51) Alex S. Jones is a journalist who has just about seen it all: he has owned and managed a paper, he has written features, he won a Pulitzer Prize, he has taught journalism, he has done radio journalism and he has written several books. He knows of what he writes. Jones is concerned about the evolution of news gathering services (TV, radio, newspapers, magazines) from expensive investigative work to nonsense tabloid stuff (this week it is Tiger Woods - thanks to serious news organizations I know more than I've ever wanted to know about his wife, his doctor, etc. - but just go out and try to get some solid info about the health care debate!) He bemoans a number of trends, including the synergy type news that ABC, NBC & CBS do to promote new books, movies or shows. He is concerned that the "iron core" of news is being ignored and is shrinki...

So, what do you get when Oscar Award Winner and a Hugo Award Winner get together? Published in 1996 by Tor Books What you get is a pretty good book, actually. The premise of The Two Georges is that the United States was never formed. The British government dealt fairly with the colonies in the 1760s and the independence movement was stillborn. Instead, what are now the USA and Canada is called the North American Union and are an integral part of the United Kingdom. The UK is a vast world-wide empire led by the King-Emperor. This union is symbolized by the painting "The Two Georges" which depicts colonial representative George Washington bowing before King George III before an assembly of British and American dignitaries. This moment encapsulates the agreements that kept the American colonies a part of the British Empire. At the beginning of the book the painting is stolen in 1996 by The Sons of Liberty, a North American pro-independence movement. The story follows two de...

Good action thriller book for political junkies Originally published in 1997. This political / action thriller revolves around the murder of a Colin Powell-type successful black general that was staged to look like a plane crash. Army Warrant Officer Rachel Collins discovers a clue to the actual cause of the general's death while investigating another crime and a nation-wide chase ensues while victims fall all over the place at the hand of the professional assassin "The Engineer." It started out slow but the middle part of the book is really quite good. Shelby creates good tension and the main characters get banged up most thoroughly and realistically. I rate this book 4 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: Last Rights .  Reviewed in 2004.

If you didn't already know it, the daughter of our 33rd president is quite the successful mystery writer. All of her books take place in and around the Washington. D.C. area and involve government figures and the temptations involved with power. In Murder In Georgetown the daughter of a powerful senator with Presidential ambitions is killed in a park after embarrassing her father at a socialite party with her lewd and suggestive dancing. Is it the father, enraged by the threat to his candidacy? Is it a jealous ex-boyfriend? Is it a jealous classmate from her Georgetown University journalism seminar? Reporter Joe Potamos is on the case but is suddenly fired when he gets to close to the answer. Too late - his curiosity drives him on. This is a decent mystery - the main characters are solid and likable. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Murder in Georgetown . I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. Reviewed in 2004.

                             Lots of Plot Twists Peter Blauner The title to this book is interesting and serves as a decent introduction to the story. Ostensibly, the Intruder in the story is the homeless man who fixates on Jake Schiff and determines, through his crack-induced haze, that Jake Schiff has somehow stolen his family and his home. But, as you read you notice that there are actually lots of intruders. Jake Schiff is a Jewish lawyer from a rough Brooklyn neighborhood who doesn't quite fit in with his WASP law firm and their snooty ways. His wife is a social worker who is an intruder in her work world because she cares more about the clients than the bureaucracy. There's a mobster named Phillip who is an intruder in his world because he's hiding his homosexual feelings in the very, very macho world of the mafia. He's also an intruder in Jake's world as he forces Jake to deal violently with the hom...

What Would You Do? Originally published in 1994. Imagine you're a defense lawyer but you used to be a prosecutor. Now, imagine you find out a career criminal that you put on Death Row is really innocent of the crime because you discover that the witness statements you used were all lies. Now, imagine that he's going to die in a month. What do you do? Throw in a heaping handful of racial politics, Florida's fascination with the electric chair and the main characters fractured family life and you've got Clifford Irving's Final Argument . It started out very slow but I kept going and it turned out to be one of the better legal thriller books I've read for a while. I give this book a "4 stars" - I'm dropping the score because of the slow start. This book can be found in multiple formats on Amazon.com here: Final Argument by Clifford Irving .  Reviewed in 2004.

G.K. Chesterton's The Barbarism of Berlin is a lengthy essay (442 kindle "locations" or about 33 pages) defending the decision by the U.K. to join World War I and fight the Central Powers, Germany in particular. It is a testament to Chesterton's powerful skills as a writer that I found myself agreeing with him so much because I've typically found World War I to have been one of the most extraordinary wastes of lives in the long history of a world that regularly wastes lives.  Note that I do not agree with Chesterton's final conclusion (the war was a worthwhile investment of time, energy and lives) but he does make compelling arguments and the essay is worth reading just to have them so well laid out in front of you. G.K. Chesterton Chesterton makes a compelling argument that Germany's outlook on the world is different than France's and England's and that these competing worldviews are bound to confront. Eventually, one will win out - th...

Nicely done Published in 2003 by Tyndale House Publishing. Walking With Frodo: A Devotional Journey Through the Lord of the Rings is aimed at middle school through college students. It takes the LOTR trilogy (movie or books) and demonstrates that the struggles in the books are often our own struggles, although perhaps not as dramatic as a battle with the Balrog... Sarah Arthur uses LOTR "to drive home timeless truths about life."(p. xii) Tolkein's Christian worldview does come out from time to time in the books (who cannot help but to make an analogy between Gandalf sacrificing himself to defeat the Balrog and the despair of his companions afterwards with Jesus dying on the cross and the behavior of the disciples immediately afterwards?) The book has 9 pairs of devotionals based on decisions or situations in LOTR (bondage vs. freedom and choosing despair vs. choosing hope, for example). There are a few relevant bible verses thrown in for good measure. A strong group...

Published in 2009. Indiana Avenue: Black Entertainment Boulevard is an important study into a mostly ignored part of Indianapolis history - the African-American cultural heart of Indianapolis in the first half of the 20th century. It was originally a Master's thesis for a community planning degree, but was re-worked a bit for this self-published effort. There are two kinds of history books. There are the narrative histories, made famous by authors such as David McCollough. A second type of book is the ones that are more research-intensive, mostly facts and they really don't attempt to tell a cohesive narrative. Both are important. The narratives depend on the research books. The research books depend on the narrative books to tell the story to everyone. That simple (and ugly) description is part of a roundabout way of noting that this book is a research book, not a narrative. Bolden does a pretty thorough job of describing the origins of Indiana Avenue and its growth and e...

A simple series of Bible studies about everyday life Published in 2000 by Concordia Publishing. Lots and lots of Bible studies are concerned with literally studying the stories of the Bible. There is a place for that, but many times problems of everyday life are not addressed, or at least not directly. This Bible study mines the immensely rich vein of Martin Luther's commentaries, sermons and even dinner table discussions in an attempt to create a Bible study that deals with 13 real life issues such as "Dealing With Temptations", "Counterfeit Christians", "Work...But Don't Worry", "Be Patient in Adversity" and "God Really Forgives Our Sins." Luther's practical teachings written in everyday language and cemented in a thorough reading and study of the New Testament, shine throughout. Every short study (8-10 pages) begins with a relevant passage from the New Testament, a short story that frames the problem, Luther's r...

A decent little mystery Published in 1989 by Pocket Books Dead Crazy is set in small-town New England and features Jenny Cain, the woman in charge of the areas philanthropical foundation (very much like Indianapolis's Lilly Foundation ) that makes investments and gives grants for the public good. The foundation is asked to buy a building so that it can be converted into a recreation/meeting hall for the mentally ill of the community - a place where they can get out of the cold and still be welcome. But, things quickly get complicated when people start dying in and around the building and a mentally ill man is the main suspect. The characters are believable, the book is well-paced and the killer is a surprise (I thought I had it figured out for about half the book, but ... I was wrong). I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Dead Crazy by Nancy Pickard . Reviewed August of 2004.

An interesting biography, a valuable perspective Founding Father is not a long biography (199 pages), but it is an interesting piece of writing. It is split into 3 areas - about one-half of the book is straight biography, about one-third is an analysis of the character of our first president and the balance is an analysis of what it means to be a founding father, how Washington measures up to that ideal and what kind of "father" he was. Richard Brookhiser The biography section is great - straightforward and written in an engaging and lively style. The character portion bogs down quite a bit and the founding father section is interesting (it asserts that he was the kind of father who was most concerned with preparing his children for life outside of his home - life on their own. He encourage other people to step into leadership roles to fill the vacuum that would be there when he walked away from the national spotlight.) One quote, above all, highlights the best ...

Pretty Decent Fun Published in 1999 Yes, I hate to admit it, but I read a Star Trek novel. I haven't read one for years, but Ship of the Line was on sale at the dollar store so I picked it up. I also hate to admit it, but I liked it. The plot focuses on the time between the 2 movies Generations and First Contact . It involves Captain Morgan Bateson, the captain played by Kelsey Grammer (a.k.a. Dr. Frasier Crane) in an episode of the fifth season of the Next Generation series. It deals with his forced time travel of 90 years into the future and Picard's angst over the loss of his ship. Kirk is also in it thanks to great holodeck programs.  Kelsey Grammer as Capt. Bateson in ST:TNG. Ship of the Line is way too cluttered and the ending is hackneyed, as many things Trek are. But, it was an entertaining read. A great novel would have dealt in-depth with the issues of a captain without a ship or a man living out of his own time, but who expects to find great literature at the do...