DWD's Reviews

Originally Published in 2001. Is this great literature? No. Is it a great piece of escapism? Absolutely! Yes! Grippando is on my short list of authors to keep an eye out for. Almost always he delivers some legal thrills, a bit of injustice that drags the reader in and some twists and turns to make the ride interesting. James Grippando In this book, a young up-and-coming lawyer's father is kidnapped in Colombia. As Nick Rey tries to free his father (Matthew Rey) his professional life, his personal life and his family's secrets all get shaken up. In a nice play on words, "rey" is Spanish for "king" - the book is about getting the ransom for Matthew Rey's release. I give this one 5 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: A King's Ransom by James Grippando . Reviewed on December 29, 2007. <br /> <img src="http://wms.assoc-amazon.com/20070822/US/img/noscript.gif?tag=dwsre...

A harder edge to Batman tales than most are used to Published 2009 by GraphicAudio Performed by a cast of 30+ actors Duration: Approximately 6 hours Set early in Batman's career, Batman: Dead White features Batman versus a group of militia-based racists who are planning an Al-Qaeda inspired terror campaign designed to start a race war. The plan is reminiscent of Charles Manson's Helter Skelter race war except that the lunatic in charge of this group is much more organized and has hundreds and hundreds of followers. The Bavarian Brotherhood are led by White Eyes, a gigantic white man who speaks the standard lines of racial purity, Aryan superiority and various plots by different Jewish groups to control everything. The difference is that he has  a workable plan to de-stabilize the United States government, lots of money and access to a whole series of new and dangerous weapons that even impress Batman. Bruce Wayne has been "Batman" for about 18 months so he ...

A compelling look into one of America's (misunderstood?) icons Published in October 2011 by Macmillan Audio Read by Daniel Oreskes Duration: 11 hours, 9 minutes John Brown is one of those well-known yet elusive figures in history. He is literally in all of the American history books, but most people know almost nothing about him except for a few headline snippets like "Bleeding Kansas" and "Harper's Ferry" and "Slave Revolt." More knowledgeable readers may remember he used a sword to kill pro-slavery settlers in Kansas and worked with several prominent anti-slavery figures before his raid into Harpers Ferry, including Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman and that his raid on the Federal armory at Harpers Ferry was an utter failure and undoubtedly proved that he was insane. Or, was he? And, was the raid really a failure? Tony Horwitz's Midnight Rising is an excellent biography of John Brown as well a well-rounded look at the politics...

This sci-fi book by Louis L'Amour could have been so much more. Originally published in 1987 by Bantam Books. Yes, that's right. Louis L'Amour, author of more than 100 westerns wrote a sci-fi book. The Haunted Mesa is set in familiar territory for him, the American Southwest and it concerns the disappearance of the Anasazi Indians more than 600 years ago. If you are unfamiliar with the Anasazi, they are the builders of the adobe brick cliff dwellings that are scattered across the Southwestern desert. Their most famous site is at Mesa Verde National Monument. Louis L'Amour (1908-1988) The premise of the book is that the Anasazi were able to travel back and forth to another dimension, the third world mentioned in Hopi and Mayan legends. They traveled through their ceremonial kivas and one of their kivas is re-opened by a reclusive billionaire who is building a home in the desert. The book itself is typical Louis L'Amour style - sparse writing, tou...

A Thrill Ride This thriller begins in a sleepy Italian village, with the village priest. He is musing over the fact that he constantly hears the same types of sins being confessed in the confessional when a local scientist/doctor comes in for confession. The reader does not know the confession, but we see the reaction: the priest flees the church and goes immediately to one of his connections in the Vatican. Whatever the sin confessed was, it has world-shaking consequences. This book brings in an ultra-conservative Catholic lay order (their motto could have been "Hey! the Inquisition wasn't all bad!"), a conspiracy to murder whole families and a professional American investigator named Joe Lassiter. The action is fast-paced and the story is well-written. The author, to his great credit, does not let you know what all the hubbub is about until the characters themselves discover it. In fact, about halfway through the book, you start to wonder if the good guys really...

A look at Hollywood from an insider's point of view Published in 2009 by Simon & Schuster. 290 pages. Daniel Depp knows his way around Hollywood - he is a screenwriter and his brother is famed actor Johnny Depp (a fact I did not know until after I read the book). Loser's Town features David Spandau, a former stuntman turned private detective. Spandau is jaded and definitely not impressed with the Hollywood movie scene. Spandau is called back from vacation to take a case involving Bobby Dye, an up and coming new star on the verge of making it to the pinnacle of the Hollywood scene. But, he's receiving death threats and, more importantly, is being blackmailed. Spandau has to deal with greedy agents, flighty actors and an on again / off again relationship with his client throughout as he tracks clues through the ugly underbelly of the Hollywood scene. The book's title comes from a Robert Mitchum quote: " I came out to Los Angeles in the 30s, during the D...

Very readable history Paperback edition published in October 2011 by Regnery History 392 pages of text. 434 pages total. Kozak was inspired to write LeMay: The Life and Wars of General Curtis LeMay by a quote from a college lecturer: "You might not agree with his politics, but if you have a son serving in combat, you want him serving under someone like LeMay." (p. 389) Personally, LeMay has always been a caricature of a general in the periphery of the story the World War II histories and pieces of historical fiction I have read. Kozak does a masterful job of dragging LeMay into the spotlight and showing us the man, not just a caricature or a non-entity on the sidelines. General Curtis LeMay (1906-1990) Kozak tells of LeMay's hardscrabble childhood, his determination and his ability to maneuver in an impersonal bureaucracy, be it Ohio State University or the United States Army - he could always find the way up. In a way, the story of LeMay in the Air Force is t...

I found this and hoped for something that it was not Now, I'm not going to hold the fact that I did not read the cover very carefully against the book - that's my fault, not the book's. I was hoping for something a bit more serious, like Millar's Red Son in which Superman is raised in the USSR rather than in the USA. But, this book is a tongue-in-cheek take on Superman, based on the premise that he landed in Kent in England, rather than Kansas, USA. Co-written by Monty Python contributers (it doesn't seem quite right to call John Cleese a mere contributor), this is an irreverant look at English culture, government and media - Superman is merely the medium used to deliver these scathing attacks. A lot of the book deals with how normal people react to someone with super powers. Unfortunately, much of this ground was covered by Pixar's The Incredibles (both The Incredibles and True Brit were released in 2004) and even, to a lesser (and darker) extent...

Published in 1991 by Tor. The Eagle and the Raven 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 best 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" provi...

Rodriguez writes a rambling, insightful and interesting work Published by Blackstone Audio in 2008. Read by Michael Anthony. Duration: 8 hours, 14 minutes. Unabridged. 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 di...

A pleasant enough read but Paolini seriously needs to send an apology to George Lucas... Originally published in 2003. I enjoyed the book but I kept on thinking that I've read this book before. No, I'm not talking about the obvious debt Paolini owes the Tolkein and also to the "Dragonriders of Pern" series. I'm talking Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope or plain old Star Wars to all of us old-timers. Both feature an orphaned teenage farm boy, left with his uncle under mysterious circumstances that no one wants to discuss. The uncle dies when dangerous outsiders come looking for the boy. Luke Skywalker has the Force. Eragon has magic. Both Luke and Eragon are watched over by strange older men who eventually provide them with their first weapon - the very weapon that wiped out a set of good knights in the name of an evil emperor.  In both stories, the strange older man character teaches them a type of magic and how to fight. The older man dies. ...

Published by Kregel Publications in 1998. 384 pages Paul Maier is a truly gifted lecturer. I've had the pleasure of watching two of his videos and if I lived anywhere near Western Michigan University, I'd sneak into the back of his classroom (he is a member of the history faculty there) on a regular basis - he has a gift for making the First Century A.D. accessible. In the Fullness of Time continues this tradition. Maier has basically consolidated 3 other books into one larger volume (with a few changes) and he discusses the first Christmas, the first Easter and the ministries of the early Apostles, especially Paul and Peter. Dr. Paul Maier Maier does a great job of bringing actual documentation that supports the stories of Christmas, Easter and the Book of Acts. He includes the works of Roman and Jewish historians, explains Roman and Jewish religious and political practices and deals with alternate theories that have been proposed. While this could be ...

Published in 2005 by Simon and Schuster 944 pages   "No harm's done to history by making it something someone would want to read." -David McCullough When I read a history book I realize that there multiple types of history books out there. Setting aside the ones that are designed to distort history (such as holocaust denier literature) there are still several styles of history book. They range from the small topical books that offer a brief overview to the more popular histories such as those that David McCollough specializes to definitive works - the type of work that others will refer back to for decades to come. Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals is just such a definitive work. It checks in at 754 pages of text with more than a hundred pages of 8 font footnotes. It took her 10 years to produce this book and it is a work of which she can be proud. It is exhaustively researched and documented. However, that is also the problem with the book. It...

A Real Treat As An Audiobook Published by Whole Story Audio Books Read by the author, Robert Lacey Duration: 5 hours, 50 minutes Unabridged Robert Lacey has done something that many writers have failed to do (unfortunately) - he has written history in a fun, accessible, easy to grasp manner. After all, as Lacey points out in his introduction to Volume 1, the "history" and "story" come from the same Latin root word. Essentially, history should be the simple story of how things happened, to the best of the teller's knowledge. Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400) Lacey's power as a storyteller is highlighted here in spades. He narrates his audiobook as well so there is the added bonus of hearing the author add nuance to the reading - essentially reading it the way he meant it to be heard. The stories are short and entertaining. Only a couple of times in nearly six hours of listening did I find my attention wandering. This is a terrifical...

A chance to get to know a bit of Michener's personality Published in 2007 by University Press of Colorado 208 pages. I am a huge fan of Michener's sweeping epics. Some look at those gigantic books as drudgery, but that is only because they have not opened one up and read it. I've read all but two - I own them but I'm saving them back like a wine connoisseur would save back a couple of his favorites. I know these books will be great and I know that once I read them there will be no more new Micheners for me. James Michener (1907-1997) Vavra's book focuses on their mutual interest in Spain and Spanish culture, especially bullfighting, Spanish dance and the Spanish countryside. Vavra met several famous authors, actors and personalities while in Spain in the 1960s. He mentions them, but it rarely acquires the character of a name-dropping book. Mostly, he uses those others as a point of comparison to Michener, and Michener comes off very well in th...

Published in 2005 by the Indiana Historical Society. 153 pages Based on a true story, and full of relevant historical photographs, Captured! A Boy Trapped in the Civil War fails to deliver on action in many ways which will make it less attractive to the 10-14 year old (estimated) target audience.. Camp Morton in Indianapolis It concerns a 14 year old boy named Johnny Ables who was captured by Confederate soldiers and pressed into service as a wood hauler. Ironically, those Confederate soldiers are themselves taken prisoner and Johnny is mistaken as a young Confederate soldier and is sent to prison camp ( Camp Morton ) in Indianapolis. Although it will find a place on my classroom's bookshelf, I can only give this short volume 3 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Captured! A Boy Trapped in the Civil War. Reviewed on April 17, 2007 <br /> <img src="http://wms.assoc-amazon.com/2...

A Classic Sci-Fi Novel Originally published 1912 in a magazine serial. (1917 in book form) S ince the movie John Carter is coming out in a couple of months I decided to go back and re-read the original of the 11 books that Burroughs wrote about Mars (or, as he calls it, Barsoom). The Whelen cover. I originally read the entire series, or at least most of it, nearly 30 years ago, when I was in high school. I must admit, I was struck by the art of Michael Whelen's cover more than anything else when I first picked it up and my circle of friends read at least some of them. I remembered them fondly but found myself very vague on the specifics. I remembered the Princess was very beautiful and there were multiple races on Mars and that some had four arms and that Carter, a former Confederate soldier, traveled from Earth to Mars in some kind of psychic manner and that there was a lot of fighting. Turns out, what I took as a poor memory was actually pretty accurate. The ...

Powerful and dead on. Published 2011 by Thomas Nelson 237 pages, including end notes. David Murrow has put a lot of thought into why men do not go to church. I am in my mid-40s and have gone to church all of my life, with the exception of 2 or 3 years right after college where my wife and I went every once in a while at best.  We have been at the same church for 18 years. We have a great church but we do have wives that come to church without their husbands week in and week out - not many, but after reading this book and being made more aware of the issue I am sure I will notice more. Murrow has studied and interviewed and talked and listened about this topic for years and he has come up with 12 reasons that men do not come to church. Among them are: -I'll hate church, like when I was a kid; -I'll lose control; -If I become a Christian, I'll become soft; -Church is full of hypocrites; -All they want is my money; -I'm jealous (women who idolize the p...