DWD's Reviews

Historical problems - but great acting. The movie makes some cheap, ineffective attempts to give the Joan of Arc story a bit more punch - including a "prophecy" from Merlin and the mischaracterization of the 100 Years' War as a War for France's freedom from Britain. However, there is some good acting in this movie, especially from Peter O'Toole - he brings humanity to a character that could have easily been a one-dimensional, generic bad guy. Is it a great movie? no Is it entertaining? Yes - and you get the bonus of watching a real pro like O'Toole show you how its done. I rate this movie 4 stars out of 5. This movie can be found on Amazon.com here: Joan of Arc . Reviewed on July 15, 2004.

Published by Brilliance Audio Read by Patrick G. Lawlor Duration: 6 hours, 52 minutes Unabridged Synopsis:  Elvis Cole and his partner Joe Pike are hired by a Los Angeles businessman to find a missing ancient copy of the Hagakure , a book that details Bushido, or the way of the Samurai. Along the way, they discover hidden family secrets, connection to the Yakuza (Japan's ultra-violent mafia) and deal with a kidnapping and modern followers of the Bushido. My review: Written in 1989, Stalking the Angel is an early Elvis Cole book. Crais is still doing a bit of casting about to find his rhythm with the characters of Joe Pike, Elvis and even his irascible cat. The plot doesn't flow as well as later books but it still a very nice listen. It is narrated by Patrick G. Lawlor who does a solid job of catching Cole's wisecracking side but overall does not catch on to Elvis as well as the narrators of his later books do. I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. This book can be...

An interesting look at the experiences of a London paramedic Published in 2009. Tom Reynolds (a pseudonym) is the writer of a blog about his experiences as a paramedic in London. There are 212 entries that read like they were lifted from his blog, perhaps given a little editing and some re-arranging and then printed. If you like the television show Cops than this format may be of particular interest to you. There are things to be gleaned from the book: You learn that a blanket is the most important tool in an ambulance. You learn that, like on the show COPS, alcohol creates a lot of trouble. You learn that Britain's NHS is seriously overburdened. Reynolds discusses hospitals filled to capacity, ambulance services that make people wait for over an hour (not always but it does happen), hospitals without basic supplies like pillows and blankets, a boy with a history of collapsing waiting for weeks for an MRI scan (I have had two on an emergency basis in the last 3 years for...

More interesting as a piece of history than as a piece of literature Originally published in 1862. This kindle e-book was most likely published as a missionary pamphlet during the American Civil War (1862). The author describes himself as the "first missionary to the freedmen at Fortress Monroe" in Virginia and was published by the American Tract Society. It originally had 64 pages (the Kindle edition that I read has accidentally transcribed the page numbers into the text). Mary S. Peake This tract is akin to those late night TV commercials that Sally Struthers used to do (and now done by a gentleman with a beard) but with a much more low key appeal - in fact there is no direct appeal for money. It is an update on the success that these missionaries have had in reaching out with the gospel and education to the newly freed slaves. It is also includes a story that is intended to pull at the heartstrings - the story of Mary S. Peake, a moderately well educated lady of mi...

The problem is that this book is trying to be two things at once - a resource book to be used as a quick reference (When was Alexander the Great born? What did the Epicureans believe?) or is it a basic history of the Ancient Greeks? Other books in the series that I have reviewed, such as The Complete Idiot's Guide to World Religions were clearly meant to be a quick reference guide. King Pyrrhus ( 319/318 BC–272 BC) So, as a history, this is sort of a frustrating read. The story of the Ancient Greeks is told in fits and starts. As a quick reference, it is good. The facts are solid and told in an understandable, interesting manner. I wasn't using it as a quick reference, rather I was reviewing the topic so as to be better prepared for the next time I teach ancient history. You can never tell what interesting tidbits you can pick up to spice up your presentations - even from the most basic of sources. For example, I learned that King Pyrrhus - the king that inspired the ...

A Solid Crime Story Originally Published in 2010. The Third Rail is the third book in a series about Michael Kelly, a hard-boiled former cop turned private detective. Lots of action and lots of tension build throughout the book as Kelly investigates a series of seemingly random attacks on Chicago's famed Elevated Train system. Photo by Kelly Martin For me, this was a welcome change of pace from the seemingly endless books about crime in NYC and LA, cities that I know only from television. I am a Midwesterner and I am familiar with the Windy City so I had no problems envisioning the neighborhoods and the city skyline. That being said, the plot was not terribly original (the TV show Castle ran a similar premise as an episode while I was reading this book) and the old saw with the Catholic Church being corrupt and more worried about PR than anything else has been played too often as of late. Chapter 26 features an especially clever point of view on victims of a shoot...

Flawed but extremely useful Published in 1998 by McGraw-Hill Education I read There's a Word for It in Mexico the way it was not intended to be read - straight through, rather than using it like a dictionary. It can get a bit repetitive as the author tries to fully explain how Mexico's history has caused their culture to react certain ways and to see things as they do. I must have read the sordid history of the Conquest of Mexico and its exploitation by both Church and Spain 25 times. The cultural elements are well-explained, very informative and usually well-written. FREQUENT spelling errors mar the book as do occasional historical errors. His math facts concerning the growth of the Mestizo population in Mexico also conflict with one another, depending on the entry you read. Was the book valuable? Yes, and not just to the traveler to Mexico. If you live near or work with Hispanics in the United States it will also be of considerable value. Despite the flaws that I men...

Published in 2009 by William Morrow Maurice Sendak is a staple of children's literature, much like Dr. Seuss. And, much like Dr. Seuss, there's much more going on in the books than a snappy text and some neat pictures. There's breadth and depth that don't don't have to be noted to appreciate a good surface story. Maguire brings to light some of the these oft-overlooked aspects to Sendak's work in this coffee table book. I have long been a casual fan of Sendak. I love the unique personalities of each of the monsters in Where the Wild Things Are and just a few days ago my daughter delighted with a bedtime reading of One Was Johnny: A Counting Book . Making Mischief was interesting in that it showed some of the many themes that have run throughout Sendak's career as an author of more than 20 books and the illustrator of dozens more. It is easily accessible by the serious fan and the more casual fan. The book is loaded with pictures and they are given grea...

Major Talents "Slumming" a Bit for Hollywood Originally produced in 1956.  Saying that Huxley and Isherwood are slumming by writing a screenplay is really an unfair comparison to the Hollywood of then and the Hollywood of now. Hollywood has always produced junk, but back then they were also more likely to look for those scripts that wrote about the human condition, looking to make a picture that talked about bigger issues. The introduction and the product description on the back cover tell us that Isherwood and Huxley fled Europe for the comparative freedom of Hollywood. Jacob's Hands really is more of a Twilight Zone effort than a traditional novel. It can best be described as a John Steinbeck type of simple 30 year old farmhand has the power to heal animals and most people with has hands. But, this wonderful gift has a lot of burdens, too. Christopher Isherwood (left) and  Aldous Huxley The novel is clearly written for the movies. Lots of the description and s...

Published in 2009. Henry Jenkins has written several books dealing with technology, media, bloggers, gamers and the like. Now with Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century he has added education to the mix. Jenkins notes several important things about the future of education (which interested me as a teacher). Formal education must address technology. It cannot be just paper and pencil. Technology is part of the modern world's media - it is not just newspapers, books, magazines, TV and movies. There are blogs, social media and a new one I hadn't really considered: video games. Jenkins encourages the use of video games to teach. There are already several games such as Sims and the various history-based empire building games that teach rules and strategies for life. Jenkins cites the example of a young man who learned a lot about Rome (and through Rome, the structures of all societies) by playing an online game, Caesar 3 . The...

Published in 2006. Winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize. One of The New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of the Century. Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize winning The Road is literally a book about not much (as some other reviewers have noted) and it is a book about love, fear, despair, hope and sacrifice - which is everything a great book should be about. It is both bleak and engrossing. Set in a post-apocalyptic world of death and destruction that makes Mel Gibson's iconic The Road Warrior look like a hopeful romp along Sesame Street, The Road is bleak and spare, but I was driven to keep reading because I wanted to know two things: what caused the world to end and what happens to this boy and his father. I plowed through it in near record time and only one of my questions was answered. I rated this book 4 stars out of a possible 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: The Road by Cormac McCarthy . Reviewed on June 11, ...

Will formal education adapt and evolve to a new reality? Should it? Published in 2009. The Future of Thinking: Learning Institutions in a Digital Age is a preview or extract of a much larger work the authors are currently writing. In reality, this should be read like a very long magazine article exploring how the digital age may affect and is affecting higher education in particular and to a lesser extent elementary and secondary education. The "book" begins and ends, to its disadvantage, with a lot of jargon-filled commentary such as: "We contend that the future of learning institutions demands a deep, epistemological appreciation of the profundity of what the Internet offers humanity as a model of a learning institution." Yes, yes, yes. This is college writing at its classic wordiness. Fortunately, once we get into the heart of the paper it gets quite interesting and more reader friendly. There are some big, important questions being asked here, such as, ...

Published in 2010 by Thomas Nelson Publishers Jack Cashill's Popes and Bankers: A Cultural History of Credit and Debt, from Aristotle to AIG is, in most cases, an entertaining, fast-paced dash through the history of debt and lending. Negatives: It is correctly subtitled "A Cultural History of Credit & Debt, From Aristotle to AIG" because it is simply "a" history. It is not definitive, in any way. It is simply one part of a much larger story. Popes & Bankers focuses on Western Culture, especially Italy, England, Germany, France, Holland and the United States. Nary a mention of Asia, Africa, or even the Muslim world - I found only one passing comment about sharia banking. Cashill ignores nearly a billion people who follow a religion that outlaws usury. Cashill also ignores post-Marx Europe. Cashill covers lots of topics here, but has no index. Ignoring these topics creates as many questions as he attempted to answer in this book. Positives:...