DWD's Reviews

Published in 2007 by Zondervan Read by the author, Lee Strobel Duration: 10 hours, 45 minutes Unabridged Lee Strobel has written several "The Case for..." books. The Case for the Real Jesus: A Journalist Investigates Current Attacks on the Identity of Christ explicitly counters the arguments from many different sources that question Jesus, the teachings about him and the integrity of the New Testament. Critics argue that Strobel is not an expert on the things he writes about. I believe he would agree with that - at most he is a well-informed layman. But, Strobel did the best thing that one can do to create a rebuttal these arguments - he went out to the experts and questioned them (because, really, who is a qualified expert in all of these fields?). Strobel asks them the questions that the "anti-" crowd would ask (really a wide range, from Muslim teachers to Hollywood directors to college professors to former Christian clergy to internet bloggers). Lee S...

A fascinating look at the Soviet Union from the 1930s to the late 1970s Published in 1981 by Faber and Faber. William Campbell was the stepson of John Ross Campbell, a noted international communist from Scotland. William Campbell decided to move to the Soviet Union in 1932 since he could not find work in London. Villi the Clown is the story of his time in the USSR, from 1932 until his defection back to the U,K. in 1977. It is a fascinating ground-level look at the USSR during the Stalinist years, the Purges, World War II and the Cold War years of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Campbell's first job in the USSR is at an airplane factory. He has no qualification except that he is familiar with how a car is put together, which makes him a relative expert in the mechanical engineering when compared to most of his colleagues at the factory. His musical and acting skills are noticed and soon enough he leaves the factory and joins a number of touring musical acts. This gives the reader...

Two incompatible ways of life symbolized by one young man Some books stand the test of time, so do not. The Light in the Forest  was originally published in 1953 and it still rings true - both historically and as a story. Based in Pennsylvania during the years preceding the French and Indian War, the story revolves around True Son, a young man who had been kidnapped from his family by Lenni Lenape Indians at age four. True Son is adopted by an honorable, respected man named Cuyolga to replace a son who died from disease. Over time, True Son forgets his white parents and becomes a full Lenni Lenape. However, a treaty is signed that requires that the white "captives" be returned to their white families. True Son is returned and the bulk of the book concerns itself with True Son's reactions to the white society he was forced to leave more than a decade earlier. Eventually, True Son escapes back to his adopted family and settles back into his comfortable way of life. ...

My first exposure to Vonnegut and I liked it! Originally published in 1985. The premise in Galapagos is that a group of people get stranded on an island in the Galapagos and end up becoming the sole survivors of the human race, due to war and famine. Their gene pool decides the fate of humanity biologically, which is why it is set in the Galapagos Islands (thank you, Charles Darwin). I could tell you the plot, but that would just gloss over all of the intentionally contradictory themes of the book (for instance: the importance of the individual is emphasized vis-a-vis evolution, but the individual is also not important because the individual is also swept away in several instances due to his stupidity and/or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time). There is actually some meat on the bones of this book - a nice change of pace when compared to some others I've read lately. Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) P.S. for those Hoosiers out there - as you may know, Vonnegut is fro...

Originally published in 1990. Hocus Pocus starts out at the end and you spend the whole book reading little stories to see how the character ended up where he is now. Eugene Debs Hartke is a prisoner being held in the library of Tarkington College. The book is his collected memoirs which were written on numbered pieces of scrap paper. The future he lives in is dominated by the Japanese economy and the American foreign and domestic policies are consumed by "The War on Drugs." Racism is much more prevalent. Eugene Debs Hartke was a teacher at Tarkington College, a college for very rich Special Education students who would not graduate from a traditional university. Across the lake is a maximum security prison that holds 10,000 prisoners - most of them were Special Education students who turned to crime to make a living. This is a good book, but it starts out a little slow. There are similar themes as other Vonnegut books I've read, especially his focus on how life...

Originally published in 1994. Slow start - but then its a roller coaster! I almost put this book down because it was going anywhere after the first 50 pages, but things picked up and for the next 675 pages it was one wild plot twist after another. It truly is a fun book to read, but I must warn you - don't get too attached to any of the characters because the author treats any and all of them as expendable. It involves a man who sees his father's killer at a Paris cafe and his pursuit of the man brings him into contact with an Interpol investigation of an entirely set of unrelated crimes (or so it seems...) Good pacing, after the first 50 pages. The end was a bit disappointing, but just about any ending would have been after all of this adventure. I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. Reviewed August 21, 2004. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Day After Tomorrow by Alan Folsom.

Published by Picador in 2001. The Year of Jubilo is the second book by Bahr that I've read. In fact, I bought this one because I enjoyed his novel, The Black Flower: A Novel of the Civil War so much. This book is different than the The Black Flower: A Novel of the Civil War , which was heavy on texture and feel. This book is every bit the equal of the first, but much more focused on plot and theme. So, what is the theme? It's in the title. The Year of Jubilo refers to the Old Testament Hebrew tradition called the Year of Jubilee. Every 7 years, all slaves were forever released from bondage. This novel explores freedom of all sorts in a (barely) post-Civil War Alabama town. There is, obviously, the newly-won freedom of the slaves, but that is barely brushed upon in favor of deeper themes. There is freedom (or not) from the past, guilt, the entanglements of family, family honor, regional honor, friendship, obligations of social position and even love. All of this is mostly...

One of the best albums I have ever heard for driving, listening and.  Released in 1989. I bought this album on the recommendation of a friend and boy am I glad I did! The lyrics are intentionally poignant and yet work without being cheesy. You can tell that he inherited his dad's ( Lonesome Dove author Larry McMurtry) ability to mold and use the English language. But the great thing is that the music is just as good as the lyrics - you'd be singing along even if the words were meaningless. This album was made with John Mellencamp's band - sort of on loan. The music is very solid, but the stories told by the lyrics steal the show. I gave my only copy to a friend (and fellow fan who had worn his cassette out) that was called up to active duty after 9/11 - I knew that he could use the boost more than me. Every McMurtry album has great songs but this one is strong all of the way through! I rate this album 5 stars out of 5. Reviewed on August 14, 2004. This album can ...

Awesome album Released in 1985. The first five songs on Scarecrow are as great together as any combination that I've ever run across on an album. They remind me of my rural Indiana roots - "Rain on the Scarecrow' starts us out at the farm, 'Grandma's Theme' reminds me of my own grandmother's voice, 'Small Town' and 'Minutes to Memories' link the urban and rural Indiana experience and 'Lonely Ol' Night' captures that restless, lonely spirit that we've all had. Perfectly put together. This is not Mellencamp's best album overall ( Uh-Huh is his best overall album, in my opinion) but it does have many of his absolute best, including 'Lonely ol' Night' and 'Small Town'.  Truly a great album.  Wonderful. I rate this album 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Scarecrow by John Mellencamp . Reviewed on August 14, 2004.

Great read - not really a courtroom thriller Originally published in 1993. Synopsis: The story of a small Pennsylvania oil town that has seen its better days and some of the unique characters that come together to expose a devious plan to dump toxic wastes into the surrounding countryside. My review: This is a great read. It is advertised as a courtroom thriller but that is just as accurate as saying the movie The Princess Bride is a childhood bedtime story. True, it is, but it is so much more. In this case, the story is framed by about 10 pages of courtroom stuff just to give the story a bit of context, but it really is just a plain old novel - with all the foibles and follies that accompany good character creation. I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Winter in the Heart . Reviewed on August 10, 2004.

Entertaining, Thought-Provoking, Funny, and Sad Released in 2012. Train of Life is a World War II Jewish Holocaust comedy, if you can believe it. It is in French w/subtitles and it concerns a little Jewish village that knows the Nazis are coming to deport their village. Everyone is panic-stricken until the village idiot has a brilliant idea - the village should get a train and "deport" themselves all of the way to Palestine. The movie is all about their purchase of a dilapidated old train, its refurbishment into a Nazi-style train and their escape across Europe and the chase by the Nazis. Along the way, there are all kinds of humorous encounters with Nazis, the French Resistance, Gypsies and Communists. Parts of it are "Keystone cops" and parts of it are "Monty Python-esque". I will not tell you how it ends, because the ending packs a powerful emotional punch. However, I do wholeheartedly recommend the movie. I rate this movie 5 stars out of 5. R...

Originally published in 2009.   By my count, this is the 21st book in the Kinsey Millhone series. I have read most of them over the years - some are good, some are great and one or two have been duds. U is for Undertow is a strong one. A very solid story, although not a very difficult mystery. Sue Grafton has kept Kinsey Millhone in the year about twenty years ago in the past. An author has to make several choices as he continues to write about a character over the years. James Bond never ages> Robert B. Parker's Spenser moved forward in time but never seemed to age. He was a Korean War vet (making him at least around 75 years old in his last book) and he still got into fistfights and chased bad guys all over the place. Tony Hillerman aged Joe Leaphorn and just moved on to the younger generation when it was time for action. The storyline of U is for Undertow most resembled an extended episode of the CBS police drama Cold Case and is different than the rest of her books. K...

Great book but there are a few errors Originally published in 2001. The title basically says it all. This fascinating book uses Daytona International Speedway and the old racing surface of Daytona Beach itself as its lens to focus on the world of NASCAR. Hinton has been a beat reporter covering NASCAR since the mid-1970s and knows all of the old stories and Hinton is able to package them so that the reader is reading one little vignette after another until the history of Daytona is told. I was reading another book when I picked up this one (a Christmas gift that I hadn't really paid a lot of attention to) and began thumbing through it. I couldn't put it down! It is well-written and at times it is laugh out loud funny, especially if you are a NASCAR fan and are familiar with the older, retired drivers. However, a couple of disturbing, trivial factual errors throw a negative light on the book as a whole. Two that I noted were Hinton's assertion that no rookie has won th...

Informative, fair and well-written Published in 2004 by Zondervan Short summary: Mateen Elass is uniquely qualified to write a book like Understanding the Koran . His father was a Muslim. He was raised in Saudi Arabia. He is now a Presbyterian minister in the United States. His short, 10 chapter book introduces the reader to the Koran by telling its history and the common touchpoints that it shares with the Bible, Christian tradition and Jewish tradition. Elass also introduces the reader to the proper handling of the Koran and has a balanced discussion on the role of Jihad in Islam, as defined in the Koran. An optional Bible study is located at the back of the book with lots of questions designed for group discussion. My review: An absolutely excellent book! The reader is not required to be a Christian to understand the book - but a working knowledge of Christian tradition and the Bible would help. Mateen Elass has produced a wonderful introduction to Islam and the Koran. He is...

Well done Published in 2010 by Little, Brown, and Company. Before this book, I had not had the pleasure of reading one of Evan Thomas' books. I picked The War Lovers up despite these fawning comments by Thomas in June 2009 ("I mean in a way Obama's standing above the country, above - above the world, he's sort of God.") My original thoughts were if this guy can't be any more unbiased in his observations than that, do I really want to read his stab at history? Well, I am happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised. This is a solid history that is told well. The book flows along nicely and the reader is both entertained and informed. Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)  with his men in Cuba The book's focus is the build-up of public support for the Spanish-American War (1898). As the title notes, Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge and William Randolph Hearst are the main subjects in the book but other people round out the story, including Harvard ...

Published in 2009 by Zondervan Geoff Surratt's Ten Stupid Things That Keep Churches From Growing is an entertaining and informative read. Like I noted in the title, I am not a pastor (but I have been an active church member nearly all of my life), but I still found the book quite enjoyable. Surratt's 10 things are: * Trying to do it all * Establishing the Wrong Role for the Pastor's Family * Providing a Second-Rate Worship Experience * Settling for Low Quality Children's Ministry * Promoting Talent over Integrity * Clinging to a Bad Location * Copying Another Successful Church * Favoring Discipline over Reconciliation * Mixing Ministry and Business * Letting Committees Steer the Ship Surratt does come at things from a non-denominational perspective so some of these items were not particularly applicable to my Missouri Synod Lutheran church, but most were. I was able to note that our church does most of these things well, including just moving out of a b...

One of the most interesting and profound books I've read this year. Published in 2008. Please pardon a little bit of blogging tossed in with a little bit of book reviewing - it's not my normal style. I am a high school teacher and we are, as a school, busily studying the racial achievement gap that exists on all (if not all, it is almost, almost, almost all) standardized tests across the country. Currently, I am bucking my school system by insisting it is not a racial gap but rather a failure of the culture of the school to attune itself to the culture of our African-American and Hispanic students. A cultural gap, as it were. To me this is no simple issue of semantics - if the gaps are cultural they can be overcome by re-tooling and learning new strategies. If the gaps in achievement truly are racial - based on inherited characteristics from our genetic code, well, what's the point of trying, really? To be honest, I truly think they are using the word "race...

Beautifully told - in all of its splendor and horror 5 CDs Approximately 5 Hours Abridged. Also includes a tiny 6 panel map of the war zones . Cotter Smith masterfully narrates a wonderful re-telling of Ambrose's favorite topic - the Western European theater of World War II. Citizen Soldiers would serve as a fantastic introduction to this topic, but also is told well enough that someone who has read it all before, like me, found it interesting, informative and entertaining. Ambrose spices up the story with a lot of stories about regular soldiers at the front. We learn about the challenges, the humor, and the horrors of the fight. Some are soldiers you've never heard of, others are more famous such as Kurt Vonnegut ( Slaughterhouse-five ) and Jimmy Stewart ( Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Stephen Ambrose ). Some stories make you laugh out loud, the Vonnegut Christmas story was so sad that I turned off the CD player and drove the rest of the way home in silence becau...

A good ending to both series. Jesse Stone #9 Sunny Randall #7 Published in 2010. Robert B. Parker couldn't have scripted a better ending to the Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall series if he had tried. Sadly, there will be no more of this series due to the death of Robert B. Parker but, happily, both end on a strong note. Split Image is really two books wrapped up in one. There is a small Sunny Randall mystery that is semi-independent of the main investigative line of Paradise Police Chief Jesse Stone. Both are good and throw in the interactions between Randall and Stone you have the makings of a strong addition to both series. I won't go into plot details here, but I can say that I do recommend this one for followers of either series. I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Split Image . Reviwed on April 26, 2010.

A 1921 translation of an important piece of Reformation theology The Smalcald Articles were designed to be be a presentation of the basics of Lutheran theology that was to be presented at a Council of the Church in Mantua in 1537 - a Lutheran/Catholic discussion about what Lutherans and Catholics believed. As Luther notes in his brief introduction these articles laid out "what we could accept or yield, and what we could not." (location 2) They are named for the Smalcald (Schmalkaldic) League - a union of Lutheran cities and territories that opposed the Catholic Holy Roman Emperor. The Council never happened and the league never adopted the Smalcald Articles as an official statement of faith because of Luther's strident, I would even say enthusiastic, attacks on some core matters of Catholic faith, especially the office of the Pope. The Smalcald Articles were incorporated into the Book of Concord and are considered traditional standard Lutheran doctrine. The Sma...