DWD's Reviews

Troubling Published in 2008.  Let me start this review by stating the following in clear and unequivocal terms: I have no problem whatsoever with people who protest and demonstrate for the things they believe in, especially those who do it like Rev. John Dear , who proceeds with the understanding that there is a possibility of arrest and detention as he protests for peace and against social inequity. The positives of A Persistent Peace: One Man's Struggle for a Nonviolent World : It is written in an engaging style, most of it can be easily grasped, even by those who are uninitiated in Christian theology. His story of how he struggled with the choice of whether or not to enter the priesthood is quite well told and interesting. The chapters are organized by both time frames and theme so it is fairly easy to go back and find comments and stories. The negatives: That being said, I do have a problem with a priest that re-interprets the Gospels (he calls his re-...

A much-needed biography for Mellencamp fans Published in 2007 by Omnibus Press. Born in a Small Town: John Mellencamp makes use of a previous biography, American Fool: The Roots and Improbable Rise of John Cougar Mellencamp by Martin Torgoff, but that was published in 1986, before John's most successful era with the Scarecrow and Lonesome Jubilee and Big Daddy   albums . Heather Johnson's unauthorized, but nonetheless well-researched biography is based on the Torgoff book, interviews with 25 people over an eight-month period in 2006. These include band members, producers and even Elaine Mellencamp, but not John. There are 4 pages of sources, including magazine, newspaper and TV interview and even a letter Mellencamp wrote to Seymour Daily Tribune when he was in high school. But, the book lacks some credibility without having John's explicit involvement. Positives: Well-researched, as already noted. John Mellencamp The author, Heather Johnson...

Tony Dungy scores big with this children's book (a dual review - DWD's 8 year-old daughter as co-reviewer) Published in 2008 by Little Simon Inspirations. Tony Dungy is a successful author, family man, public speaker, and a fine example of how to be a Christian gentlemen. Oh, he also manages to coach an NFL team in my city, the Indianapolis Colts. In You Can Do It!   Tony takes us back to his childhood in Michigan and tells the story of his little brother, Linden, who is a cut-up in class but can't seem to find his way. He can't figure out what is his "it". Tony is an athlete. His sisters take care of animals. What is his thing, his "it"? To Dungy's credit, the story is simple, but not preachy and not so simple that it bores the adult reader. I read right to the end and was genuinely interested in seeing how it came out. The illustrations are perfect and really help tell the story. My daughter, an 8 year-old and an excellent read...

Seinfeld's Wayne Knight's first foray into audiobooks Published by BBC Audiobooks America in 2008 Read by Wayne Knight Lasts 2 hours 30 minutes Karin Slaughter's  Martin Misunderstood  is a short (2 1/2 hours) audiobook about a loser named Martin, his awful mother, his cruel co-workers and his miserable life in Georgia. Martin is framed for murder and his extensive readings of James Patterson, John Grisham and Patricia Cornwell are all he has to help himself. Positives: Wayne Knight did a great job of creating the voices, especially those of Martin's mother and Unique (You-nee-quay). Knight's comic timing was a big help with some weak material. Negatives: Karin Slaughter. This is my second Karin Slaughter book (both this summer) and I am not going to read her anymore. Wayne Knight Slaughter spends nearly half of the book just setting up the characters and then she just wraps it all up like she was on a deadline and she just had to ge...

This re-telling of the story of Jesus was just okay Published in 2003 by NavPress Pub Group. Written by Stephen R. Lawhead and Ross Lawhead. Adapted from the original story by Eddie DeGarmo and Bob Farrell I picked this one up yesterday. I was excited to see it was a near-futuristic re-telling of the last days of Jesus re-told by Stephen R. Lawhead. I am a giant fan of his book Byzantium , so I knew he'd re-tell this is a respectful and interesting way. It was respectful and faithful to the Biblical version but very short. I read this one in about 20 minutes. It is a graphic novel version of a rock opera but this so you obviously can't include the songs. But, there was nothing else added either. No background on the disciples (except Maggie). You actually have to know the story from the Bible to read this and get what they are doing. There's no explanation about who Petrov (Peter) is and where he came from and why he follows Hero (Jesus). Jude Discariot gets the...

Accurate, textured historical fiction that just failed to do it for me Published in 2001 by Random House Publishing Group. Before I get started let me say that I liked The Legend of Bagger Vance absolutely loved Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae . Pressfield is a master of Greek battle scenes, especially from the point of view of the grunt footsoldier in the middle of their deadly scrums. Pressfield's mastery of battlefield scenes happily continues in Tides of War: A Novel of Alcibiades and the Peloponnesian War . His descriptions of the Athenian campaign against Syracuse was as good as anything in "Gates of Fire". But, in between there was so much speech-making, reminiscing and quotes from Greek literature that I felt like I was having to slog through it all. On top of it all, the map of "Greece and the Aegean" in the front was insufficient, only listing some of the places mentioned in the book so that one had to guess w...

From a casual fan of the original V mini-series So, I'm reading V: The Second Generation based on hazy twenty-five year old memories. I thought the book held up pretty well and it was a fun, last blast of summer read for me. Nothing fancy, nothing I'd brag about and say, "Yes! I read that!" but also a good bit of sci-fi action. That being said, it's not like this book is not without it's problems. There are continuity issues, too much happens with too few people. The secret "weapon" of the resistance is created so quickly that it boggles the mind as to why they didn't try this earlier. Clunky sentences abound. Strange phrases like, "people of both genders and sexes" (aren't gender and sex the same thing?) are peppered throughout. So, fun, but not perfect by any means. Much like my memories of the original series. I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: V: The Second Generatio...

Originally published in 1998. No one, and I mean no one in modern fiction does a better job of creating the "man on the run" story line than David Morrell. He creates tension and paranoia in his stories that make the reader turn the page. This story is no different in that respect. But, it does have a horrible flaw. Double Image features photographer Mitch Coltrane. He mostly does news photography but is also quite the talented artistic photographer. When the story starts, Coltrane is in Bosnia photographing Dragan Ilkovic, a war criminal whose men are digging up mass graves in order to more properly dispose of them. Coltrane gets his pictures, barely escapes with his life and decides that it is time to get out of the news business because the sights are starting to give him nightmares. In the meantime, his pictures cause Ilkovic to become an international criminal. Ilkovic comes to Los Angeles to hunt down Coltrane and Morrell's strengths as an author come to the fo...

An important piece of the story of the American Revolution Thomas Paine (1737-1809) Published in 2003 by Running Press Sad to say, this history teacher had never read Thomas Paine's famed pamphlet Common Sense until three days ago. I came across a stand-alone printing of the book and was prepared to buy it when I found 46 Pages . The entire text of Common Sense (originally just 46 pages long, thus the title) is added as an appendix at the end of the book. I read the original text first and then proceeded to the first part of the book which consists of a short and pleasant combination of a biography of Paine, a history of Common Sense and little snippets of what several founders thought of the pamphlet at its author. This is a solid addition to any American history buff's collection.  I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: 46 Pages . Reviewed on August 5, 2008.

A decent little documentary about Indiana, its history and its people Filmed in 1991, this 63 minute production is the first work of two brothers, Jim and John Hilgendorf who were inspired after visiting relatives in Indiana. They learned how to make movies while filming this one and logged more than 10,000 miles covering the state. They have since gone on to make more than a dozen documentaries about such places as Mexico, France, Oregon and St. Petersburg, Russia. While the production values on Indiana: A Tribute The Hoosier State   are fairly low, the movie more than makes up for that with its thoroughness and its obvious affection for the Hoosier State. This native-born Hoosier cannot think of a thing that was left out, from James Dean to the Covered Bridge Festival to the Indy 500 to Tecumseh to Notre Dame to young Abe Lincoln to the architecture of Columbus to basketball to John Mellencamp...it's all here. Beautiful shots of the Indiana countryside abound a...

Very rarely does a book live up to the hype... Hannah Tinti You know how it is. You get a book because the blurbs on the cover tell you it is the most wonderful book since Stephen King was in diapers. This one has the audacity to have comparisons to Oliver Twist , Huckleberry Finn and Robert Louis Stevenson. To be honest, I picked up The Good Thief figuring it would be wrong and I would skewer it in this review. Well, I am pleased to say that I was wrong. This book DOES live up to that hype. It does belong in that august and lofty crowd. Somehow it pulls off being filled with literary allusions and homages to other works and being a unique work of its own. There are multiple literary allusions that I noted, including Treasure Island , Sleepy Hollow , Huckleberry Finn , Oliver Twist , A Clockwork Orange , Faust , Milton and Terminator 2 . So, in short, pick it up. This one is a unique winner. I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. Reviewed on August 18,...

A great piece of historical fiction - strongly recommended Originally published in 1948. When I teach world history I always give my students a project in which they are to read a piece of historical fiction and do a bit of research. This book is exactly the type of book I recommend for them to read and why I created the project in the first place. My Glorious Brothers is well-written and re-creates a little bit of the historical world for the reader. Set in 2nd Century B.C. Israel, this is a story of national liberation and freedom of religious expression. Many Protestants will be unfamiliar with the Maccabees since Maccabees 1-4 is not included in the Protestant Bible. This book is an ideal place to start to explore that time between the exile in Babylon and the Roman occupation that is featured in the New Testament. The main characters are 5 brothers and their father, descendants of the Tribe of Levi. They refuse to be "civilized" by Hellenized (Greek-i...

A bit of smartly done, high-tech adventure Michael Crichton (1942-2008) Michael Crichton is re-visiting some old stomping grounds in Prey . The 1970s sci-fi movie classic Westworld was written and directed by Crichton and it features technology run amok and set loose on a killing spree. Jurassic Park features the dangers of tampering with the gene pool with an ensuing killing spree. Prey , in many ways, is a combination of the two - the dangers of nanotechnology, specifically the dangers of using bacteria in combination with tiny, tiny bits of technology to create something new. The problem is, of course, the same problem that he pointed out in Westworld and Jurassic Park : Things never turn out the way you think they will. Is this a Pulitzer Prize winner? Hardly. But, it is a creepy thriller with some good points about science, the dangers of unintended consequences and some good thrills and chills. I enjoyed this one thoroughly. I rate this book 5 stars out...

It just didn't work for me Published in 2004 by Globe Pequot Liberty's Children is a collection of stories about the experiences of eleven children during the Revolutionary War (although one is 20 years old, which was definitely not a child in a time when many were married with children at age 16). The book is well-researched and accurate. I have no complaints with that or the ample bibliography that is sorted by the individual children. But, I just felt like I had to slog through parts of it and I love to read history. I questioned some of the choices as well. Five of the eleven went off to sea, one of them was 20 years old and one was just a baby. I found myself wondering about the decision not to include the most famous child that served in the Revolutionary War, Andrew Jackson. He served as a courier and had his face slashed by a British soldier for refusing to clean his boots. Or, how about John Quincy Adams, who accompanied his father to Europe during th...