DWD's Reviews

Unique twist on the traditional Western but fails to deliver Originally published in 2001. Riders of Judgment is the third in the "Danny Duggin" series. The first two book are Death Rides a Chestnut Mare and the second is The Shadow of a Noose. The trilogy is about Danielle Duggin, the crack shot daughter of a master gunsmith who was gunned down by a ruthless gang led by Saul Delmano, the rich and spoiled son of a man who has led his own gang for decades. Danielle transforms into "Danny" and starts to hunt down the 10 men in the gang that killed her father. She has a list of names and is slowly working her way through it, marking them off as she kills them. She is joined by her twin brothers in her second book. In the third book they are down to one last name: Saul Delmano. Saul Delmano is hiding in Mexico, protected by the government of Mexico because Delmano's father rules the valley he lives in and polices it and shares some of the spoils with c

Read by Will Patton Published by Simon and Schuster Audio 2013 First published in 1982 Duration: 5 hours, 23 minutes James Lee Burke is a prolific writer with more than thirty books, most set in New Orleans and Texas.  Two for Texas takes place in both places. Son Holland is the main character. He has been falsely accused of being involved in a crime ring and sentenced to hard time in a Louisiana penal camp by the French gentlemen that control the city. While in this camp, Holland meets Hugh, a loud-mouthed, opinionated, walleyed older man who engineers a chance to escape to Texas. But, when they escape they end up killing one of the two downright evil French brothers that run the camp. This is 1834 and Texas is a foreign country – technically still a part of Mexico but certainly preparing to rebel and create the Republic of Texas. Sam Houston (1793-1863) Hugh and Holland live among Indians, dodge the Mexican Army and flee the posse sent after them from

Published by Blackstone Audio in 2012. Read by Joe Barrett Duration: 8 hours, 55 minutes . James McPherson is undoubtedly the most popular living Civil War historian. He writes in a common, easy-to-understand style that flows nicely and does not dumb down the facts. His latest book, War on the Waters: The Union and Confederate Navies, 1861-1865 continues that tradition. Union Admiral David D. Porter - Leader of the Naval forces in the Vicksburg campaign. If you read a typical Civil War history you get a just a little bit of the information, usually in passing, about the war on the open sea, in the bays, harbors, up and down the rivers and even in the swamps. McPherson reverses that arrangement in this book and focuses on the strategies, personalities and challenges that faced both navies and mentions the land campaigns in passing. If you are a frequent reader of Civil War books, little of this material will be new. But, the special focus does make the story of the nava

A disappointment Published by Ballantine Books in 2006. To start, let me establish my bonafides as a fan of Mr. Thom's work. Three of his novels sit on a shelf less than two feet from this computer. I have the featured review on Amazon.com one of his novels ("The Red Heart"). One of his books is on my Favorite Books List on my profile page. I actually designed a long-term project for my world history classes using historical fiction with his books in mind, and I told him so when I met him at a state-wide conference for social studies teachers. So, I approached St. Patrick's Battalion with much hope. Instead of his usual quality, I found this book to be simplistic, with less detail and bent on beating two points home time after time: the Irish were treated brutally and shamefully by the U.S. army during the Mexican War and the Mexican War was an unjust war. James Alexander Thom Thom makes it clear in the opening dedication and acknowledgments th

A wonderful introduction to Kahlo (a review of the English translation) Frida Kahlo with Diego Rivera in 1932 If you saw the Selma Hayek movie on the life of Frida Kahlo and want to know a bit more, this book is a wonderful introduction to her professional life. In fact, the movie and this book complement one another quite nicely, since the movie tended to focus on her personal life. Andrea Kettenmann's book follows the life of Kahlo and does a great job of explaining the symbolism of Kahlo's work as it pertained to her personal life, her health setbacks and her political beliefs. In my opinoin, the intensely personal nature of her work is what makes her such a compelling artist. She was especially good at depicting her pain, both psychic and physical. This book goes a long way to explaining many of her works. There are 93 illustrations in this book and most of them are of her paintings. Also includes a couple of photographs of Diego Rivera's works that i

Published in 1991 by Tor. This is an odd effort in many ways. Coming in at just 211 pages of text (plus about 20 pages of appendices), this is a tiny Michener book. It is even more tiny when you consider that 28 pages of this book is a forward by Michener and about 20 pages of the book are taken up with blank pages between chapters and illustrations. This Michener paperback was published in 1991 by Tor, a publishing house more well-known for its sci-fi and fantasy offerings. I would imagine that they just wanted to cash in on the Michener name since he was in the midst of a real hit streak with such books as Alaska , Caribbean and  Poland becoming best-sellers. Tor calls this book a novel, although only a few pages really qualify as a novel, with inserted character dialogue that was most likely created by Michener. The rest of it is really best described as a comparative biography. While not the best of historical works, "The Eagle and the Raven" provides a compari

Rodriguez writes a rambling, insightful and interesting work Published by Blackstone Audio in 2008 Duration: 8 hours, 14 minutes I first learned of Richard Rodriguez on C-Span's Booknotes program. He was an invited guest of First Lady Laura Bush to speak at an author's fair that she started hosting in Texas while she was the First Lady of Texas. Rodriguez was promoting his book Brown at the the time and I thought his observations were wonderful. Days of Obligations is in a similar vein, but not nearly as focused. He does (primarily) focus on the differences between Mexico and the United States Two interesting observations from Mexicans about America include: 1) "America is 'Organized'. Passive voice. Rodriguez notes that there seems to be no connection that actual Americans do the organizing. Rather it's almost like it is fate that America is organized. 2) Americans have too much freedom. Rodriguez digresses from his Mexico/America discu

This Spanish teacher has used this one in class for years I have used Touring Mexico in my Spanish classes for years as an introduction to Mexican culture, history and geography. It is a quick-paced movie that does not dwell on one particular theme for any great time, but does not leave you feeling like you are being shorted, either. The only weakness to the movie is the music and video is a bit dated - some shots from the early '80s and a reference to discotheques come to mind - if someone snorts about that in class I remind them that a "dance club" is just a re-named disco! The movie lasts about an hour and I primarily use it on days when I have to be out of class. I made a little worksheet to go with it and it becomes an easy day for the substitute teacher. 5 stars out of 5. Reviewed on September 21, 2008.

Chichen Itza A short, breathtaking look at Mexico's Indian ruins Filmed almost entirely from a helicopter, Sentinels of Silence is a double Academy Award winning documentary is narrated by Orson Welles. This movie is shown in by the Mexican government in embassies around the world and serves as a fantastic 18 minute introduction to the Ancient Indian Civilizations of Mexico. Orson Welles, dramatic photography and an equally dramatic soundtrack combine to make this a memorable movie. A must-see and must-have movie for all fans of Mayan and Aztec history. 5 stars out of 5. Reviewed on September 21, 2008.

Paul Madriani continues fighting terrorists and never enters the courtroom Published by Harper Audio in 2011. Read by Dan Woren. Duration: 10 hours, 57 minutes. Unabridged. Steve Martini completes a trilogy within his Paul Madriani series that does not have attorneys Paul Madriani and his partner Harry Hinds even enter a courtroom. Instead, Madriani finishes a three book fight against terrorists (both foreign and domestic) in Trader of Secrets . If you are looking for a good courtroom drama, this book will surely disappoint. However, if you are looking for an international chase over 3 different continents, traitors, spies, secret agents, international assassins, a good and loyal dog, secret government agencies and a conspiracy that may kill millions...well this is your book. What are Madriani's qualifications for chasing international terror plots? Hardly any. He is too old, too slow and doesn't really carry a weapon. However, he has a good sense of right and wron

Loud and strong, this book goes at it hard William Shatner once commented that the results of his directorial efforts in Star Trek V were "loud". One could easily say the same thing about Jon Land's Strong Enough to Die . Jon Land Strong Enough To Die comes at you with a gunfight on the first page, has lots of gunfights throughout and ends up with guns and explosions as well. Does it work? Well, yeah. This is not fine literature, mind you. It is loud, lock and load, over-the-top Texas Ranger action. There's some attempts at trying to tie in Bush administration anti-terrorist policies and discussions about living with the aftermath of violence but those get overwhelmed by the gunfire. But, that's okay because too much thinking about the internal incongruities of the text on these matters just spoils the fun. It's the famed Texas Rangers and a bad guy who might be a good guy against the Mexican Mafia and an evil American super-corpo

Very good, wonderful historical detail Hernan Cortes (1485-1547) In my mind, the Aztecs have been short-changed by modern authors. There has not been enough attention to them and their interesting story. And Cortes! If ever anyone should get high marks for having ambition and bravery in spades, it's him. Anyway, the historical details are well done in the book. Falconer almost makes you feel like you are there with the Spanish as the arrive at the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan. He has created a multi-dimensional Cortes, rather than the stereotypical 'evil conqueror' Cortes (although, at the end I lost the feel for Cortes - I don't know if Falconer lost interest or he also lost his feel for the man). In most books and texts Cortes is portrayed as a gold-crazed, land-crazed conqueror - but his motivations are far more complex - including a complete disgust with the Mesoamerica's fascination with human sacrifice and the cannibalistic consumption of t

A change of pace for Morrell David Morrell David Morrell is one of my favorite authors. The only problem with being a Morrell fan is that he's not a big name author like King, Koontz or Grisham. You have to explain who he is to author book people and they usually get turned off when you mention one of the most famous characters in fiction: Rambo. Too bad because Morrell writes multiple genres - supense, historical fiction, horror - and he does them well and he is definitely should be known more as the creator of the cartoonish image most people have of Rambo. Anyway, I'm slowly working my way through his older books and enjoying myself. Last Reveille is Morrell's first foray into historical fiction. First published in 1977, the 1994 edition has an eight page introduction to the book that sets the book up quite well. He notes that it is similar to the John Wayne movie The Shootist in that there is an aging character that becomes a composite, a symbol o

A thorough discussion of the topic, from a stop-the-bleeding perspective Mark Twain once noted that, "Everyone complains about the weather, but no one does anything about it. I was reminded of this quote while reading Darrell Ankarlo's  Illegals: The Unacceptable Cost of America's Failure to Control Its Borders. Everyone has an opinion about illegal immigration, but precious few people have even seen the border, let alone know anything about the high cost of illegal immigration, the physical danger it creates, how it is done and the long-term damage it does to the United States. This is an eye-opening, scary look at the world of illegal immigrants - the dangers of crossing the border, the coyotes who guide them across, the drug gangs, and the U.S. Border Patrol. The first half of the  book is a powerful and consuming introduction to how immigrants cross the border, how the Border Patrol pursues its policy of "catch and release" and the extreme poverty of pa

             Disappointed My mother in law bought me three Brian Fagan books for Christmas last year because they were on my Amazon Wish List. I read the first one The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300-1850 right away and enjoyed it. I gave it four stars. . I was saving this one, hoping to enjoy it just as much. Now, I am worried that I'll never muster enough interest to read the third one. The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations seems rushed - a poorly edited and a poor man's version of Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed with some global warming hype thrown in for good measure. Many of the cultures covered by Fagan were actually covered in Diamond's more detailed book. Fagan looks at the time of the Medieval Warming Period, approximately from 800 AD to 1300 AD, and the effects of this slightly warmer time on numerous societies, including Western Europe, the Mongols, the Inuit, the P

What if...it were ALL written by top quality writers? The premise of this book is explained by the title. The "What ifs...?" range in time from the failed Assyrian siege of Jerusalem in 701 B.C. to an extremely tense period in the Cold War in November of 1983. There are 40 different scenarios in all. For me, the most interesting were the scenarios concerning the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs and the American Revolution. Each of these had multiple "What ifs...?" and I am now convinced that 2 of the luckiest men in all of history were Hernan Cortes and George Washington. They both could have failed in so many ways (13 are identified for Washington) and yet they persevered and had military success. An unintended "What if?" is the reader's inevitable comparison of these historian's writing styles. More than once I thought to myself, "What if this story was written by a better writer?" However, most were very good, especially the ones wri

Flawed but extremely useful I read this book 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 mentioned above, I am still giving this book 4 Stars out of 5. This b

 Victor Davis Hanson Victor Davis Hanson's Mexifornia: A State of Becoming is one of the most thorough discussions about the topic of illegal immigration that I have read. Hanson is sympathetic to the plight of the aliens, is intimately familiar with the economic aspects that draw them to America (he owns a vineyard in the Fresno area) and he is witness to the changes and hidden costs that have come to California. He discusses the issue from the point of view of the illegal alien, the employers that hire them, the taxpayers that subsidize them, the way we used to bring immigrants into the larger American culture, the way we do it (or don't do it) now. It is not an anti-immigrant rate, despite some of the comments you may read in the reviews. I found this to be a fascinating read - It is much deeper than Geraldo Rivera's The Great Progression: How Hispanics Will Lead America to a New Era of Prosperity , a book that I've recently read that covers some o