DWD's Reviews

Originally published in 1960. Read by Tom Weiner. Duration: 10 hours, 55 minutes. Unabridged. Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel, 1961. A Canticle for Leibowitz is a Golden Age of sci-fi novel that originally started out as three related short stories that were published in  The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction   in 1955, 1956, and 1957. The author, Walter M. Miller (1923-1996) was convinced to rework them into a single novel - the only novel he published in his lifetime (a sequel to this book was published after his death.) Synopsis: The story is set in a dystopian future. During the late 1950s or early 1960s the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union became a nuclear war called the "flame deluge." Human life was nearly destroyed and genetic mutations are fairly common in man and nature.  Six hundred years later the only surviving constant from the pre-war times is the Catholic Church. The story focuses on an abbey of monks in New Mexico w...

Published by Tantor Audio in June of 2024. Read by Khalid Abdalla. Duration: 2 hours, 26 minutes. Unabridged. Raja Shehadeh is a Palestinian lawyer, human right advocate, and author. Shehadeh grew up as a Christian and Palestine has been occupied his entire life. This short book is an extended essay of sorts on the state of Palestinian/Israeli relations.  The book is often critical of Israeli policy and actions, especially under Benjamin Netanyahu, but it is hardly a justification of the October 7 attacks. Shehadeh does question the sincerity of Israel's attempts to work out something with Palestine - be it a two state solution, a common government with Israeli and Palestinian representatives, or some other system. Ignoring the situation does not make it go away. There are more than 5 million Palestinian refugees and they are not going anywhere - mostly because they are not really allowed to. It was an interesting listen, providing a lot to think about. It was read very well by Kha...

Published by HarperAudio in November of 2024. Read by Jim O'Heir, George Newbern, Eva Kaminsky, Janina Edwards, Roger Wayne, Jim Meskimen, and Adam Verner. Duration: 6 hours, 24 minutes. Unabridged. Jim O'Heir has been knocking around Hollywood for years as a journeyman actor. He has had roles in dozens and dozens of TV shows and movies - good stuff and bad stuff - but always regular stuff. He was well on his way to becoming one of those character actors that you see so often that you say, "Oh! There's that guy! He was on that one show." Then in 2009, he showed up on the new NBC show Parks and Recreation playing the bumbling and often befuddled lovable loser Jerry Gergrich. He kept playing this character for all 123 episodes of the show. This book is a dual biography of sorts. It is the story of Jim O'Heir and how he came to the show, but it's also the story of the show itself. Jim interviews producers, writers, directors, and other actors to give us the s...

Published in 2019 by Pamala Fagan Hutchins. Read by the author, Pamala Fagan Hutchins. Duration: 7 hours, 56 minutes. Unabridged. My synopsis: It is 1976 and E.R. Doctor Patrick Flint wants to take his family on a week-long family camping and hunting trip on horseback. He is keenly aware that his teen children are getting older and they won't have too many more opportunities to go on adventures around their Wyoming home. But, things are starting to unravel. His wife decides she doesn't want to go at the last minute. His daughter is complaining because she'll be out in the mountains and away from the boy she is interested in.  So, the family separates for the week and that's when things start to go bad - and once things start to go bad in this book they just don't stop. My review: The basic outlines of Switchback are quite good, especially for the first book in a series. There's a decent amount of world building and the choice to set the book in 1976 removes all...

Published in October of 2024 by Worthy Books. Read by the author, April Ajoy. Duration: 8 hours, 4 minutes. Unabridged. Star-Spangled Jesus is the story of April Ajoy and her spiritual evolution since the political appearance of Donald Trump in 2015-2016.  Is it weird that a politician caused a spiritual evolution?  No, not in a world of Christian Nationalism. For the most basic definition, I am going to say that it is a belief that a person can't truly be an American if they aren't Christian and their rights as an American should reflect that. Also, this is precisely what happened to me, so I get it. Trump shocked me out of the Republican = Good Christian mindset because of the simple reason that he is so overtly antithetical to so many Christian ideals and is proud of it. If the previous paragraph offends or confuses you, you will hate this book.  Ajoy's pre-2015 Christian experience was much more conservative than mine and more intense. Her father was a conservative p...

Published by Harper Horizon. Read by Penn Holderness, Kim Holderness, Nathan Rosborough, Anne Marie Taepke, Tyrrell Harrell, and Lola Holderness Duration: 8 hours, 50 minutes, Unabridged. Penn and Kim Holderness have a small media empire - viral videos, songs, a podcast, cable TV specials, and two books.  ADHD is Awesome is their second book. Penn Holderness has ADHD, his wife Kim does not. Together, they come at the topic from the point of view of a person with ADHD and a person that loves a person with ADHD and wants them to be their very best. They go through the history of ADHD as a diagnosis, Penn's personal version of ADHD (they are very clear that everyone's ADHD is unique), how his family supports him, how he annoys his family with his ADHD, and practical steps to take to support a child or loved one with ADHD. This book has a light, fun tone. Several "guests" come in and add to the discussion. It has much more of a podcast feel than a regular audiobook readi...

Published in October of 2024 by Little, Brown, and Company. Read by Christine Lakin, Titus Welliver, and Madison Lintz. Duration: 10 hours, 50 minutes. Unabridged. LAPD Detective Harry Bosch first showed up in a novel in 1992. The Waiting is the 25th book in the series, but he has appeared in more than 30 books and short stories. Bosch is aging. He has aged right along with the series. He would be about 74 years old in this book and he is no longer the detective that goes out and finds the bad guys, but he does contribute from time to time. His protégé Renee Ballard is in charge of the cold case unit of LAPD.  Her unit is almost entirely made up of volunteers and they go through unsolved serious crimes and see if modern technology (like DNA comparison) can help to solve them. This book is mostly a Ballard novel, but Bosch does play a critical role in one of the three mysteries that are dealt with in this novel. I have a feeling that the "Bosch" in the Ballard and Bosch books...

Originally published in 1966. Audiobook published in 2011 by Random House Audio. Read by Jason Culp. Duration: 4 hours, 35 minutes. Unabridged. My synopsis: The Broken Gun is the story of a writer named Dan Sheridan. Sheridan is kind of a stand-in for Louis L'Amour himself. L'Amour was a prolific author, but he before he was a writer he skinned cattle, worked in mines and lumber camps, was a professional boxer, and was a merchant seaman. Later, he served in World War II in Europe. His character Dan Sheridan worked on ranches, lumber camps, and served in the Korean War where he was captured and escaped back to the American lines. Later, he was trained in guerilla warfare, served as an advisor in South Vietnam where he was captured again and escaped again. Sheridan researches a topic thoroughly before he writes. It is the early 1960s and his latest interest is a large cattle drive in the 1870s that was led by two brothers named Toomey from Texas to Arizona. They were looking for...

Highly Recommended. Published in 2021 by HarperAudio. Read by Ron Howard, Clint Howard, and Bryce Dallas Howard. Duration: 13 hours, 18 minutes. Unabridged. Ron Howard and his brother Clint Howard practically grew up on America's television screens. Ron Howard starred in the  The Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days for a combined 15 years of his early life. Ron has since gone on to become a prolific director. His credits include Cocoon , Willow , Cinderella Man , and Solo: A Star Wars Movie . His movies have won 9 Academy Awards. Clint Howard starred in the TV show Gentle Ben when was a little kid and has since gone on to become the quintessential model of a working actor. He has more than 200 acting credits, including the original Star Trek series, Austin Powers , The Waterboy , and a recurring role on the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful . The Howard brothers are the sons of a working Hollywood actor named Rance Howard. Rance's credits look a lot like his son Clint'...

Published in 2020 by ChristianAudio. Read by Neil Shah. Duration: 8 hours, 5 minutes. Unabridged. I heard about The Other Side of the Wall on The Holy Post podcast . I knew that there were Palestinian Christians in Gaza, but I hadn't given it much thought. Generally, I find the Palestinian/Israeli conflict too intractable to think about. It's not that I don't care, it's that simple solutions (or even insanely complicated solutions) don't even seem to be on the horizon at all and in a world with so many problems close at hand, it's easy not to think about problems half a world away. My bandwidth is just not that big. But, the interview was good - it came from an unexpected source in this conflict. The podcast host interviewed Munther Isaac, a Lutheran pastor and teacher. He is also a Palestinian from Gaza. There has been a continual Christian presence in Gaza as long as anyone can tell, although it is dwindling as Palestinian Christians opt out of the conflict z...

Published by Penguin Audio in 2022. Read by Stephen Mendel. Duration: 11 hours, 35 minutes. Unabridged. The Runaway is the seventh book in the Peter Ash series. Ash is a retired Marine with PTSD issues and an intense desire to help people in need. Sometimes he settles down, sometimes he wanders. In this book, Ash is crossing the country and is near the border of South Dakota and Nebraska. He comes across a broken down car and a very pregnant young lady. She is desperate to get going down the road so he takes her.  They get a few miles down the road when they come across a truck blocking the road. They turn around and find another truck blocking the road and leaving them nowhere to go. The hitchhiker tells Ash that he is in very grave danger and he should flee... My review: For a book full of action, thrills, and mayhem, this book was often tedious.  ********Spoilers******** The pregnant young lady is a victim of gaslighting and, eventually, kidnapping. The process was long an...

Published in 2009 by HarperAudio. Read by Stephen Lang. Duration: 2 hours, 25 minutes. Unabridged. My Synopsis: In 1971 a relatively unknown director made an ABC made for TV movie called Duel . The plot was simple enough - a traveling salesman is harassed by a semi-truck on a nearly empty desert highway. Spielberg took this opportunity and turned it into the movie that made his career. Now, Duel is a cult classic. Before the movie was made, there was  the short story of the same name. Richard Matheson wrote the short story and the screenplay. Joe Hill and Stephen King added a second story called Throttle to this collection. It features a motorcycle gang trying to decide their next steps after a botched attempt to find some missing money that resulted in a brutal murder. Suddenly, a semi-truck catches up to the gang and begins to pick them off one by one. My Review: Duel was a very good short story. It draws you in and keeps you involved to the end.  Throttle is told well, ...

Originally published in 1967. Audiobook published in 2004 by Listening Library. Read by Jim Fyfe, Duration: 5 hours, 9 minutes. Unabridged. Listed on BBC's list of 100 Most Inspiring Novels in 2019 . Author is the winner of the inaugural Margaret A. Edwards Award for YA  My synopsis: This is a true YA classic. Some consider this to be the book that invented the YA genre. Written by a high school student in the 1960's, The Outsiders is the story of a group of "greasers" in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Greasers are poor teens who grow up on the tough side of town. Adult supervision is pretty lax and they spend their days smoking, flirting with girls, and working. They join loose gangs and fight among themselves, but they all unite when their biggest enemies come around. Their biggest enemies are the rich kids who cruise the poor side of town looking for a fight. The main character is the oddly-named Ponyboy. Ponyboy's deceased parents like to give their children odd names. Po...

Published by Dreamscape Media in 2022. Read by Cady Zuckerman. Duration: 9 hours, 18 minutes. Unabridged. Edgar Award nominee. Synopsis: An Unforgiving Place is the second book featuring Felicity Harland of the Investigative Services Branch. If you are not familiar with the ISB, join the club - I had no idea that it was the "FBI" of the National Parks Service. If the local park can't deal with it, they call in the ISB. That always include murders. Harland is partners with a park ranger nicknamed Hux. He is a big, strong guy. Harland is a short (but very tough and determined) lady. There is always of undercurrent of romantic attraction between the two, but it is never acted upon for fear of messing up their friendship and working relationship. Her dog rounds out the trio. In this series, the ISB moves the agents around from park to park. I have no idea if that is what happens in real life but it does let the reader get a feel for a new park in every book. An Unforgiving P...

Published by Blackstone Audio in 2007. Read by Stefan Rudnicki. Duration: 54 minutes. Unabridged. Louis L'Amour (1908-1988) was an amazingly prolific writer with a career that lasted 50 years. He wrote up to 200 books, both novels and non-fiction works, depending on how you count them up, but he began writing short stories for magazines. I assume The Black Rock Coffin Makers is one of those stories. Synopsis: A cowboy rides into a strange town hundreds of miles away from home. He is immediately mistaken for a local man who was driven out of town and possibly killed by ruthless competitors so that he couldn't make a claim on a ranch. He looks so much like the other man that armed man try to kill him within minutes of arriving in town. Luckily, he runs into a local woman who is also involved in this mess and that's when the real adventure starts... My Review: This story starts out very strong. I was immediately drawn in. But, as it went along it just lost some of its steam. ...

Published by Simon and Schuster Audio in 2024. Read by the author, Frank Bruni. Duration: 9 hours, 46 minutes. Unabridged. Frank Bruni, as the title The Age of Grievance implies, looks at how people of all political stripes act as though they are aggrieved at so many things. Sometimes, it's kind of funny and harmless, sometimes it's deadly serious to our values (forcing speakers off campus because they are too conservative) and sometimes people's lives (January 6th.) If you follow the news, especially political news, not much is new here except grouping them all together and adding analysis.  He is not saying grievance is always wrong. For example, the Civil Rights movement was a grievance movement. But, he is saying that it has to be informed grievance. For example, he discusses the fact that most people that are convinced that China's economy is larger than America's economy (China's economy is about 2/3 of the size of the U.S. economy with 3 times the popul...

Published by Brilliance Audio in July of 2024. Read by Sophie Amoss Duration: 10 hours, 18 minutes. Unabridged. My Synopsis Broken Bayou features Dr. Willa Waters, a child psychologist with a very popular podcast who lives in Texas. After a disastrous local television interview goes viral, Waters runs to Broken Bayou, Louisiana. This is where her two great aunts lived in a mansion on the edge of town. When she arrives in town, there is an uproar because a body has been found in the bayou and then a young schoolteacher and her car went missing. But, some of the locals still remember her because Waters spent most of her childhood summers in Broken Bayou with her great aunts. Waters and her little sister would be brought to town by her mother. All three of them would move in and her mother would spend the summer having a good time with the locals.  In many ways, her great aunts were the closest thing to proper parents that Waters and her sister had.  Her great aunts passed away ...

Book version originally published in 2023. Audiobook published in July of 2024 by My Story Productions. Read by Shamaan Casey. Duration: 12 hours, 7 minutes. Unabridged. Wings of Redemption is the final installment of the Forgotten Fleet Trilogy . This sci-fi series is about a future war between humanity and an insectoid species. The series focuses on a squadron of space carrier-based fighter pilots on the front lines. The fact that it is focused on this relatively small group of people is the real strength of this trilogy. It doesn't get caught up in tales of political intrigue at the macro level, instead it follows these pilots on the bleeding edge of the front lines. There are successes and very tough losses. The risks are personal and also galaxy-wide. If these pilots can't help turn the tide, the war will be lost for everyone. Each book of the trilogy has a distinct feel. The first book ( Wings of Honor ) focused on the recruitment and training of these pilots against the...

Published in 2004 by Random House Audio as a book on cassette. Published in 2008 as a digital audiobook. Multicast performance. Duration: 1 hour, 8 minutes. Unabridged. Louis L'Amour (1908-1988) wrote well more than 100 novels and non-fiction works - maybe 200, depending on how you count them up. If you count individual short stories, you can add in hundreds more. L'Amour's writing career started out as a short story writer for magazines, beginning in 1938. I assume that this short story started out in a magazine but I could not find any record of when or where it was originally published.  The Turkeyfeather Riders was adapted from a short story into old style radio play for this production. This includes special effects and multiple actors playing different characters.  My synopsis. The plot is pretty simple. Jim Sandifer is a ranch foreman. He and his widower boss get along fabulously, but when his boss comes home with a fiancé and her son, Sandifer becomes suspicious of...

Published by Simon and Schuster Audio in 2024. Read by the author, Fareed Zakaria Duration: 13 hours, 2 minutes. Unabridged. Fareed Zakaria's Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present  is exactly what the title says it is. Zakaria writes about the beginnings of capitalism, multi-cultural societies, globalism, democracy, the industrial revolution, the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, Fascism, the failed Arab Spring, LGBTQ+ rights, and the rise illiberal democracy and the return on authoritarianism and the forces that pushed back (or overturned) them. The author Zakaria has clearly done his research and writes in such a way that it flows from one topic to another almost as if they entire book was just one big story (which it is, if you look at it as the story of humanity, especially The West.) If you find yourself wondering how we got here, this is a good place to start. Zakaria breaks down complex movements and ideas and makes them understandable. ...