DWD's Reviews

An interesting look at the 1850s in the Kansas Territory through the eyes of a young woman . Read by Mare Winningham. Lasts about 5 hours. Abridged. John Brown I purchased the abridged version of The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton on tape (5 hours) and found it to be quite enjoyable. The listener is treated to a ground level view of the politics of slavery in the 1850s and how violence based on the 'goose question' (code for the slavery issue) swept through households, towns and eventually the entire Kansas Territory. Smiley's characters are not simple cardboard cutouts - some of the pro-slavery people are quite nice, some of the anti-slavery people are quite insane (she mentions 'Old Brown' and his atrocities and his actions cause some dissent in Liddie Newton's household). Many readers have complained of the plodding pace. Although my version was abridged, there were still some plodding moments. However, the superb ...

Revealing. Fascinating. Educational. A valuable experience. A+++ Winner of the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 2003. Have you ever wondered what it might be like to see the world through the perspective of someone whose mind works much different than your own? How different? Do you want to visit a mind that has different opinions and points of view? What about someone whose mind works in a fundamentally different way than yours? How about someone whose mind perceives the world differently than almost everyone you have met in your entire life? The wonderful thing about a work of fiction is that the reader can be transported into the mind of anyone and see the world as it might be seen from another's point of view. There are no constraints. Elizabeth Moon has done just that in her novel The Speed of Dark . Elizabeth Moon As it proceeds, The Speed of Dark does bring up many important themes and holds its own on matters such as the rights of the individual to be...

Great introduction to Lincoln for children Published by Walker Childrens in 2008. Where Lincoln Walked is a wonderful little history mostly about Lincoln's pre-Presidential life. Lots of beautifully shot full color pictures of such places as Lincoln's mother's home in Kentucky, Lincoln's boyhood home in southern Indiana and his law offices in Springfield. The author, Raymond Bial, took most of these pictures himself. He has a good eye for photography and does a great job with the text and the captions. Recommended for budding young history buffs, classrooms and the hardcore Lincoln collectors. I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Where Lincoln Walked . Reviewed on December 6, 2008.

Race is an issue in this great mystery Published by Hachette Audio Read by Dick Hill Duration: 10 hours, 55 minutes. Unabridged Michael Connelly Angels Flight , an early installment in the Harry Bosch series, is as good as the rest in the series meaning, at least in my mind, it is a proud member of one of the best set of detective novels currently being produced. Michael Connelly 's books are usually deep and gritty and this one is no different. The lead character is Harry Bosch, the leader of a 3 detective team in the LAPD that is assigned an unusually sensitive case. A well-known civil rights attorney that has successfully sued LAPD over and over again for violations of federal civil rights laws has been murdered on the eve of an especially notorious case against the LAPD. Of course, everyone inside LAPD and out believe that a police officer killed him in a fit of revenge and the city is seething. Set just a few years after the Rodney King riots and t...

A slow start but don't let that deter you Although I am a history teacher, I have to admit that I am woefully under-informed on the Korean War - at least when compared to our other wars. Sadly, I am not alone in this fact - there's a reason why the Korean War is called "The Forgotten War". Drury and Clavin start off slowly, in part because there is no context as to why the soldiers are marching around in the subzero weather in northern Korea. However, once they explain the purpose of this particular campaign in the war as a whole and show the reader a few maps I got a lot more comfortable with how they were telling the story and appreciated it a lot more. Marines during the Chosin Campaign in the Korean War The Last Stand of Fox Company: A True Story of U.S. Marines in Combat is not a fancy history - it is told from the ground level perspective of the the Marines on the hill and is full of tales of bodily fluids, men too young to actually join t...

Fascinating. Disturbing. Inspirational. Published in 2007 by Grand Central Publishing. The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids is a fascinating investigation into the lives of some of America's top students - the kids who want to do it all and oftentimes do, but at great personal cost and for dubious reasons. Alexandra Robbins befriends and follows several students from Whitman High School in Maryland through one school year as they try their best to score perfect 1600s and 2400s on the SATs, be accepted into Ivy League schools and pad their resumes to impress the admissions officers with tons of extracurricular activities (one student she interviewed had SIX typewritten pages of extracurricular activities!). Robbins intersperses research and interesting facts with her stories of the students and discusses the unhealthy obsession with perfection and how the true values of education (knowledge, exploration, wisdom, self-discovery to name a few) is often su...

Well depicted characters make this one a winner! Published in 1999. The mystery is not all that mysterious. No international criminal ring threatens. National Security and the fate of the free world do not depend on what happens in Posadas County, New Mexico and its tired and ready to retire Undersheriff Bill Gastner. That, of course, is the charm and strength of Out of Season . Posadas County, New Mexico's small sheriff's department suffers the loss of its well-intentioned but inexperienced Sheriff in a plane accident - except it looks like it was not an accident after all - the pilot was shot before he crashed. Undersheriff Gastner looks into the private investigation that the Sheriff was looking into and finds that his inexperienced boss may have had good instincts after all. First, let me praise what Havill does best in this book - character development. Gastner is a tired old horse who is ready to go out to pasture but when duty calls the value of his years of...

As an adult fan of both Barry and Pearson I couldn't resist picking this one up... Dave Barry Dave Barry has long been a favorite of mine and Ridley Pearson is on my list of writers to look for as well so when I saw that they had taken on the Peter Pan storyline and created a prequel,  I knew that I just had to read it. Happily, I was not disappointed. This is fun, escapist fiction at its best. The book works on multiple levels - adults will understand several double entendres while kids will love the quick pace and high adventure. Ridley Pearson The plot revolves around a group of people called Starcatchers, people who collect starstuff , glowing magical stuff that falls from the sky and makes the people that use it superhuman. Michelangelo, Attila the Hun and Zeus are all historical figures that have found and used starstuff. The Starcatchers try to capture it to keep it out of the hands of evil people. I am more than happy to recommend this one to reader...

The Second in a Nifty Series Published in 2010. I read the first book in the Chet and Bernie series as part of the Amazon Vine program, meaning I was given a pre-publication copy of the book for free. I thought the series had a good hook to it (Chet is a dog, his owner Bernie Little is a private detective - the only detective in the Little Detective Agency. The story is told entirely from the point of view of Chet) but I doubted it would have staying power. I am pleased to say that I was mistaken - not only does this series have legs, but each of the two follow up stories are better than the original. Chet is a completely trained police dog who will only say that he washed "out on the very last day, a long story, but it's not secret that a cat was involved!" Bernie and Chet are now partners in the best sense of the word - Chet often is well on his way to solving the mystery before Bernie has anything figured out due to his superior sense of smell and hearing, but it i...

From an occasional reader of the Kinsey Millhone series Originally published in 1991.  I am only an occasional reader of this series as you can probably tell since I am reading H Is for Homicide more than 15 years after it was first published. I have no idea what letter Sue Grafton has worked her way to by this point but I am more interested in catching up after reading this installment. Sue Grafton Lots of fast-paced action keeps Kinsey thinking on her feet throughout the book. Ostensibly, she is undercover to expose a car insurance fraud ring (they cause low speed accidents and fake serious hard-to-prove injuries such as 'back pain') but mostly she's trying not to get killed as things spiral out of control as she goes undercover with some very tough people. Good job. I give this one 5 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: H is for Homicide by Sue Grafton . Reviewed on May 7, 2006.

Fill your mate's "love tank" Published by Northfield Publishing in 1996. 4 hours, 46 minutes. Read by the author, Gary Chapman. Gary Chapman The author, Gary Chapman, does an excellent job of narrating the audiobook version of  The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate. Chapman's thesis is, simply, that we all have a love tank, and it is best filled by two of 5 different love languages. If your spouse expresses his or her love to you in a love language that you don't speak than you will both be frustrated and your love tank will not be filled and eventually you will look for other ways to fill it. The five love languages are: -Quality Time -Words of Affirmation -Gifts -Acts of Service -Physical Touch Chapman provides plenty of concrete examples so that most listeners will be able to identify themselves or their spouse. He includes a section about expressing love to one's children as well using his lov...

Brilliant. One of the best books I've encountered this year. Published by Highbridge Audio Read by Kirsten Potter 8 hours, 21 minutes Unabridged. Filled with everyday examples but also full of technical explanations about how the brain actually works when it reads, Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain is a bit of history, a bit of science, a bit of philosophy, a bit of educational theory and a whole lot of learning bundled into an entertaining package. Maryanne Wolf I may be an ideal reader for Maryanne Wolf since I am a foreign language teacher, a history teacher, I love reading and I am very much interested in how boys, in particular, suffer from reading difficulties (Wolf cites biological research that is butressed by others who say we start too early to try to teach our students and we label students too early as having reading difficulties). Wolfe explores the early history of writing and reading, the different types of ...

A charming spiritual journey in which an Orthodox Jew discovers that "Hanging out with Jesus has made me a better Jew." Benyamin Cohen First off - this is not one of those stories of conversion. Rather, Benyamin Cohen does not feel fulfilled by his experiences with the synagogue or the hundreds of rules that an Orthodox Jew must follow. He decides to go to the other side of the street and see if the grass is greener (he literally grew up across the street from a Methodist church that seemed so much more vibrant and alive and happy than the synagogue that was attached to his house). Cohen gets permission from a Rabbi to spend a year with the Christians - he goes to church every Sunday (after synagogue on Saturdays this makes for some long weekends I am sure) and treats the experience as a wandering anthropologist looking into the strange and wondrous world of Christianity. What follows is a remarkable journal of one man's exploration of Judaism an...

Not the best Bosch book, which means that it is merely very, very good and not excellent Read by Dick Hill. 11 hours, 11 minutes. Connelly's Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch is named after a Renaissance painter who specialized in fanciful and gruesome visions of hell from high above and detailed looks at the tortures that it holds for its residents. Hieronymus Bosch is designed to be our guide through the modern hell of Los Angeles - at least that's the way it seems to the Hollywood Homicide Division. Fittingly, The Black Ice starts with Harry Bosch watching a wildfire burn part of the canyon below his home. His thoughts are interrupted with a radio call about a homicide and Bosch descends the mountain into the madness. A long, complicated case unrolls for Bosch as he goes against direct orders and privately investigates the presumed suicide of a narcotics and I will go no further so as to avoid spoilers. Michael Connelly Dick Hill read this installation of th...

A fitting end to a series Published in 2011 by G.P Putnam's Sons. With the publication of Sixkill , Robert B. Parker 's last completed Spenser novel is on the shelves and Spenser's tale is done. It is tempting to make this review a review of the entire series, and I may fall into that temptation a little bit because Spenser and Parker have been part of my life for the better part of twenty years. But, most importantly, Sixkill is Robert B. Parker ending the series on a high note. As any fan of the series knows, half of any Spenser book is already written - witty back and forth of a non-PC nature, annoying psycho-babble with Susan talking about why Spenser does what he does ("And, I suspect, if you didn't do what you do, you'd become someone else..."- p. 191), a rundown of all of the people that Spenser could contact to help, if needed (because Hawk is not in this one - he is still off in Central Asia), and eventually Spenser annoys enough people with...

Fascinating, insightful, thought-provoking and entertaining. Much like the original VeggieTales stories, Me, Myself, and Bob: A True Story About God, Dreams, and Talking Vegetables is a well-written story told with lots of humor and with much more depth than you might think. Phil Vischer On one level it's a fascinating story of the rise and fall of a media giant. I was fascinated on that level because I went right along with them - we had VeggieTales videos at our house before we even had kids because we saw them at the Christian bookstores playing on the VCRs in the back just in the way that Vischer describes in the book. Our house has the cool Pirates Who Don't Do Anything toy boat from the Jonah - A VeggieTales Movie , the Larry Mr. Potato-Head-type dress up character, stuffed dolls that talk, videogames (including a theme park game which is ironic considering that Vischer talks about how much he wanted to build a real one) and lots and lots of vide...

An American Classic 4.5 hours Narrated by Jonathan Reese Published by Tantor Media Frederick Douglass wrote three autobiographies during his life. Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglas, an American Slave , written in 1845, is, perhaps, the most famous. The others were My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881, revised 1892). Written as a response to those that doubted that such an intelligent and well-spoken man could have ever been a slave, Narrative tells about the early life of Frederick Douglass (b. 1818 - d.1895), how he learned to read and write and how he acquired the skills necessary to escape and prosper in the North after he escaped. Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)  as a young man Douglass was a young man when this book was published (aged 27) so there is not a lot of detail about his life as a free man (with the caveat of being an escaped slave living the constant fear of being kidnapped and returned to slavery)...

I thought it was great before, even better when I re-read it 15 years later. Originally published in 1937 John Steinbeck (1902-1968) I used to have a considerable classroom library (I have since switched schools and there is no Silent Sustained Reading program at the new school so I donated my library) and I always would hand Of Mice and Men to any kid that said he or she hated reading and "there's nothing good to read." I had a hard time keeping this book on the shelves and since I had an "honor system" check out plan this book kept on disappearing on me since the students seemed to have felt it was worth keeping and I had to make runs to the local used book store to re-stock it. But, I hadn't read it in a while so I decided to see if it was still one of my favorites. If anything, this book is more powerful than it was before. The loss at the end is more powerful, both the loss with Lennie and with the loss of a dream. Themes abound, su...

The fun continues (and gets better!) Originally published in 2010. I enjoyed the first book in the Chet and Bernie series, Dog On It , but assumed this was to be a cute attempt at a series that fizzled after the first book. I ran across the third book and immediately picked it up, pleasantly surprised that the series was still alive. I am pleased to report that not only is the series alive - it is getting better as it goes along! Chet and Bernie are private detectives. Well, Bernie is a private detective. Chet is his dog - a police dog (almost!) that failed to make it all of the way through his training. The story is told completely told from the perspective of Chet, the dog who pretty much understands human society, at least enough to tell the story. What he does know is that he and Bernie are inseparable partners and they always have each others' back. In To Fetch a Thief , Bernie gets some free tickets to a down and out traveling circus and he takes Chet and his son. When ...

A pleasant surprise Published in 1997. I f you are an avid reader, you know how much of a gamble it can be to pick up a book by an author you've never heard of and jump into the middle of a series. You could get lucky and find a great new author to read or you could just be wasting your time. Well, I'm pleased to report that this is a great book and I'm going to seek out the others in the series. A Death in Victory is the third in a series featuring Harry Starbranch, the town police officer in Victory, Wyoming. Rather than go through plot details I'll give you a general idea about the book. A Death in Victory reads a bit like Robert Parker meets Tony Hillerman. Starbranch is a wisecracking cop who is not afraid to throw his fists. He has friends and connections everywhere and is not afraid to use them. But, like Hillerman, there's an acknowledgment of the reality of the immenseness of the wide open western spaces. He describes Wyoming and its cu...