DWD's Reviews

Published in 2012 by CreateSpace Yesterday, I posted a review of Book 1 of this series ( The Reborn ) and I wrote a lengthy rave review. I am not going to go into all of that here. Suffice it to say, I really liked Book 1. Of Mice and Hitmen is where the series really hits its stride. In Book 1, programmer Trevor Leighton discovers that his employer, a tech firm called Day Eight, has created simulated human life in a computer. Not just Artificial Intelligence, but simulated life write down to the cellular level.  These computerized people are called simulants. Trevor has already met one fairly simple version of the simulant program, a simulant 1.0 if you will. In Book 2 he meets Ezra, the most updated version of the simulant program. She lives in an accelerated world, programmed to go faster so that she can complete projects in the real world quicker. Her name is Ezra, which is an odd name for a female, but it means "helper" in Hebrew and she is being used to work on ...

Published in 2012 by CreateSpace So, I have on the table next to me three books by Ray Mazza . These books make up The Day Eight Series. They are self-published and most experienced readers know that a great number of the self-published are fair to middling and I am usually tempted to grade them on a curve, the thought process being, " Well, it's pretty good considering it's a do-it-yourself job and she did it all herself." This is much the same thought process I have when I do handyman work around the house and I proudly show it off to my wife - it's pretty good but certainly not professional. I let these three books sit on my to-be-read pile for about a month. Why? I was not in the mood for, "Well, it's pretty good, considering..." So, I pick up book one, The Reborn , and about 15 pages in I am thinking, "Where is he going with this?" I read the back cover a couple of times and decided to give it a few more pages. Where are the...

Published by AudioGo in 2012 Read by Joe Barrett  Duration: 6 hours, 6 minutes. Unabridged This is the first book I have read (or for that matter even seen) in the Sam McCain series. Normally, I would not recommend jumping in on the tenth book in a series, but it is a testament to the skill of the author, Ed Gorman, that I was able listen to Bad Moon Rising and join right in and not feel lost at all. The titles in the series all come from music from the general time that the book is set in.  It is late August 1968. It is hot in Black River Falls, Iowa. The book starts with Sam McCain at a party watching the violence of the Democratic National Convention. Hippies are on TV and hippies are in Black River Falls. They are a source of controversy as their free love lifestyle, long hair and drug usage rankle a lot of people in small town Iowa. They live on an old farm with a history of tragedy and that history continues as the daughter of the local millionaire is found dead i...

Delivers what it promises Published by Creative Content Ltd in 2011. Narrated by Lorelei King Duration: 1 hour, 20 minutes Creative Content has a whole series of short audiobooks and kindle books in its "The Lowdown" series. The main feature of the series is that they are short (a little more than an hour or about 35 "pages" on the Kindle) and give the reader a quick look at a topic. In this case, the topic is the origin of the Vietnam War. Note, this is not a history of the entire war, but if you ever wondered just how the United States got involved in the Vietnam War, this nifty little history will do the job just fine. President Lyndon Johnson signs the Tonkin Gulf Resolution in August of 1964 Anderson roots his history in the aftermath of World War II. There are two major factors at play. The first is the desire of the French to re-establish their pre-war colonial empire and re-assert themselves as a major player on the world scene despite their be...

Highly Recommended Published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2012 Last summer I read David K.Shipler's first book on this topic, The Rights of the People: How Our Search for Safety Invades Our Liberties (see my review by clicking here ) and I found it to be the most profound book I read that summer and maybe all year. I began my review of that book with this thought: "I always tell people that the traditional left-right continuum used to describe someone's politics is so inaccurate as to be useless. Really, what is the difference between an aging hippie living on a hill somewhere  raising some dope for personal use and telling the government to get out of his business and a Barry Goldwater-type conservative (like me) living by himself on a hill somewhere that tells the government to get its nose out of his business? Some dope. Otherwise, they are both determined advocates of civil liberties - keep out of my business if it is not hurting anyone else." When I read the fir...

   Published by Doubleday in 2012 If you remember the giant television shows of NBC's heyday in the 1980s and 1990s this book will be fascinating. Shows like Cheers, Cosby, Law & Order, ER, Will &  Grace, Friends, Frazier, 3rd Rock From the Sun, Mad About You and Seinfeld ruled the airwaves. Thursday nights were dominated by NBC and NBC usually made more money on that night than the other six nights combined - literally billions of dollars. Warren Littlefield was directly involved in the creation of these shows or the in the decision to put them on the air. Littlefield tells the story of "Must See TV" through the voices of the participants themselves. The book is literally a series of quotes with very little in the way of narration from Littlefield himself. Littlefield calls it "oral history" format. If this book were a movie, it would be one of those "talking head" documentaries full of people talking. But, what a documentary it would...

Published by Borders/Recorded books in 1990. Narrated by George Guidall. Duration: Approximately 6 hours, 30 minutes. Unabridged The Blessing Way is the first of the Leaphorn books but, ironically, Leaphorn is a mere supporting character throughout most of the second half of the book. College professor/archaeologist Bergen McKee is the main character - the one who has the most growth and teaches the reader the most about Navajo society and culture. Tony Hillerman (1925-2008) Nevertheless, The Blessing Way is an enjoyable book. I have read all of Hillerman's books at one time or another so I am going back and listening to some of the older ones as a high-quality diversion from my boring work commute. I intentionally picked this one, the oldest of the series, since I recently read and reviewed the newest of the series ( The Shapeshifter ), which, ironically enough, also prominently featured the Navajo Wolf/Witch/Shapeshifter. His descriptions of Navajo society...

An American Odyssey -Slow start, but once you get past the first 50 pages or so you won't want to put it down. Winner of the 1997 National Book Award Originally Published in 1997 by Atlantic Monthly Press Cold Mountain is really a set of very, very short stories all tied together into two main narrative lines. It can be very frustrating to some who just want to get the story moving, but that the main plotlines are not really the point. The wonder and randomness and beauty and brutishness of this thing we call life is the point. This is no "Pilgrims Progress" in which the main characters struggle and eventually reach a higher consciousness and understanding.  However, it is  a Post-modernist American Odyssey. In the original Odyssey, Odysseus goes from one adventure to the next on his way home from war. In the telling it the reader (originally the listener since it was originally an oral story, not a written story) learns life lessons and Odysseus comes home a ...

Published in 1989 by Books on Tape, Inc. Read by Michael Prichard Duration: 4 hours, 45 minutes I read Looking for Rachel Wallace years ago, but I don't have a great memory for all of the plot details so I am re-enjoying the Spenser books as audiobooks. In this case, Spenser and Rachel Wallace kept me company while I wrapped presents and fed my one-year old. And they were quite good company. Rachel Wallace is a lesbian feminist activist who lives to shock and provoke the sensibilities of middle America in the late 1970s. Her activism has made her the recipient of several threats so Spenser is hired to protect her. If Rachel Wallace is anything, she is an ultra-feminist and no ultra-feminist (at least not in this book) is going to run to a big strong man for protection. Rachel Wallace realizes this and fires Spenser. But, soon enough, Rachel Wallace is actually kidnapped and Spenser goes on the hunt for her out of a sense of personal obligation. The climax of the ...

A Scotsman, a mastiff and a feudal nation Published by Mariner Books in 2006. When the United States first invaded Afghanistan one of my friends wondered aloud if we intended on keeping it as a colony. I quipped that we already owned a mountainous desert area full of people that have a religion that we don't understand - we call it Utah (with apologies to my Mormon friends out there). After reading The Places In Between I truly realize the depth of our misunderstanding of the situation in Afghanistan. I keep up on the news better than most. I've spoken with veterans who have returned from Afghanistan. Yet, as I read Stewart's account of his walk across Afghanistan just weeks after the fall of the Taliban, I realized that this truly is a foreign culture - as alien to me as any on the planet. I am amazed that the mission in Afghanistan has been as successful as it has been. Stewart introduces us to the variety of cultures that Afghanistan possesses. He ...

Going back for a second read - this time as an audiobook Published in 1988 by Books on Tape Read by Michael Prichard Duration: 5 hours, 12 minutes (unabridged) I've long since read all of the Spenser novels but I am enjoying a second time around with the older ones as audiobooks - I listen while commuting. Robert B. Parker  (1932-2010) The Godwulf Manuscript is the first in a very long line of Spenser novels. The most essential parts of Spenser are here - wisecracks, details about cooking, his mostly unused office and a healthy interest in the opposite sex, Lt. Quirk (I'd forgotten he was Spenser's first "buddy" in a long line of buddies) and Spenser's self-deprecating inner voice. The Godwulf Manuscript is a much more "noire" style book than most of the rest of them - but then again it's not much of a surprise really - authors change over time. Spenser, however, does not change. The book is set in 1973 and Spenser ...

Published by  Simon and Schuster Audio in 1992. Read by David McCullough, the author Includes parts of recordings of speeches by Harry S. Truman and Douglas MacArthur Duration: approximately 6 hours Abridged The unabridged version won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize. I am a history teacher, with my favorite times in American history being the Revolutionary War Era, the Civil War Era and an interest in the Frontier as it moved across the United States. While I knew a great deal about Truman before listening to this audiobook, I really felt that I needed to know more. David McCullough's treatment of Truman is friendly, but not overly rosy. The audiobook version I listened to was abridged. I assume that the areas that were not focused upon in the abridged edition are more fleshed out in the unabridged edition. (Note: this abridgement was not sloppily done - I didn't even notice it was abridged until about 3/4 of the way through the book - it just seemed like he was glos...

Beautiful pictures, wonderful essay    Published in 1996 by Graphic Arts Press. 142 pages. Darryl Jones captures Indiana's beauty like no one else. Jones has made several books filled with wonderful shots from all over Indiana, although he tends to focus on Southwestern Indiana hill country most of all. These are not all nature shots, like some of his other books. There are shots of small towns, grain silos, barns, the Colts, the Indy 500 and Conner Prairie. Jones' work is paired with James Alexander Thom's essay on Indiana history, character, and its possible future. Thom's writing is not just mindless boosterism, but rather a thoughtful commentary by a Hoosier who is in love with his state, warts and all. The essay is just as wonderful as the pictures, if not better! I am considering this as a gift for a relative who moved out of state just to remind her of home and its unique character. I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon...

Does it work? Yes, oddly enough it does! Released in 2003 by Vitamin Records I am a dyed-in-the-wool Mellencamp fan and I have been since American Fool came out in 1982. Fans like me could either love projects like this, or absolutely hate them and view them like a desecration. The attitude taken towards the project has a lot to do with it and this album has taken a respectful attitude towards Mellencamp's work. John Mellencamp The songs have been adapted for String Quartet but have not been radically altered - you can sing right along with them if you'd like. Most have been thoughtfully chosen - for example, if it featured a strong fiddle component, such as "Paper in Fire" than it was worked in to the album. "Peaceful World" is achingly beautiful in this adaptation. "Small Town" has a more melancholy tone than the original song, but it is not at all inappropriate. It is also quite beautiful and it is respectful reinterp...

An interesting premise and lots of fun     Published by Westminster John Knox Press in 2001. Google this book and you will find some criticism from people that have entirely missed the point of the book. The point of The Gospel According to The Simpsons  is NOT to tell how the Simpsons preach the Gospel. They don't. The Simpsons Even though  The Simpsons always goes for the sarcastic and biting joke, it is also a remarkably spiritual show. It is the only show in which the main characters go to church on a regular basis. No one thinks it strange that people pray. Prayers are answered. God exists and he acts. From time to time, organized religion is skewered with their wickedly clever satire. Then again, so is everything else, from rock stars to public education to family life to just about everything else. Pinsky's point is that religion is treated remarkably well on the show that has a bad reputation. Pinsky focuses on each of the main characters (H...

A strong addition to the Sunny Randall series Published in 2007 by Putnam Sunny joins with her retired cop father on a serial killer case that went unsolved 20 years before. It seems the killer has come back again after a hiatus and the elder Randall is chosen to head an all-star task force to catch him. Sunny is brought in as his assistant since she's a former cop and her father trusts her instincts. Robert B. Parker  (1932-2010) As the jacket liner tells you, Sunny gets noticed by the serial killer and he starts to send her notes in the mail... Just to be clear, this is not a police procedural. The reader does not have to read through the drudgery of endless questioning of possible witnesses, etc. Sunny still acts as a private detective and the smart comments and witty dialogue prevail throughout. Sunny makes a lot of progress with her psychologist (Susan Silverman) in this book and a great portion of it is about her numerous issues and the progress s...

I am not a fan of Matthau but he is undeniably strong in this one. Produced in 1990 by Qintex Entertainment The Incident is an Emmy-winning made for TV movie about a fictional POW camp for German soldiers in World War II. They are being held in Camp Bremen, in Bremen, Colorado (the movie was actually filmed in Colorado Springs).  During the World War II, the United States held thousands of Axis POWs in similar camps in rural areas throughout the country. The local town doctor is also the POW camp doctor. He is murdered at the camp and a German sergeant looks to be guilty. A civilian trial is ordered due to political considerations and the local ne'er-do-well attorney played by Walter Matthau is appointed by the judge (played by Harry Morgan of M*A*S*H and Dragnet fame) to defend the German suspect. Matthau is strong with a wide variety of emotions displayed - not overdone, not underdone - just right. He has several strong scenes with his character's grand...

Despite the lack of details about "Survivor" it is a solid autobiography Published in 2007 by Life Press Rupert Boneham is one of the few bona fide celebrities to have come from the "Survivor" television show. Rupert tells about his difficult family life growing up in Kokomo, Indiana, his difficulties as a young man struggling with alcohol, drugs, tricky female relationships and his own desire for an instant family. However, through it all that big heart of his shines through and the reader is rooting for him to find his way. Despite his gruff and bearlike appearance, Rupert: Just Being Me confirms that the attribute that we loved him for on Survivor was no act - this man is a Teddy Bear with a heart as big as all outdoors. Most enjoyable is Rupert's discussion of helping troubled teens. Even at his lowest, Rupert helped out kids - often his program was their last chance to stay out of jail. Rupert proudly details some of his successes and ...

Thoroughly enjoyable. Quick, thought-provoking read Published by New Beginnings Press in 2007 The Real Stars: In Today's America, Who Are the True Heroes? is inspired by Stein's "Nick and Jessica" column - a column that was copied and pasted and forwarded to millions of e-mails across the world. Stein has collected a series of columns from the years 1978-2006, mostly from the 1998-2005. Topics range from Elvis and the celebrity culture to Richard Nixon to current foreign policy to the widows and orphans of fallen soldiers to the deaths of his parents. Ben Stein Often profound and usually very funny, Stein usually has a gentle wit and tries to put a gentle spin on things. But, 2 or 3 of these essays demonstrate that Stein can be cutting (however, his cutting observations are correct) and those are all of the more powerful since they stand out from the norm. Although this is a relatively short book, Stein's essays about his parents are worth the price of...