DWD's Reviews

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...

A decent little mystery Published in 1989 by Pocket Books Dead Crazy is set in small-town New England and features Jenny Cain, the woman in charge of the areas philanthropical foundation (very much like Indianapolis's Lilly Foundation ) that makes investments and gives grants for the public good. The foundation is asked to buy a building so that it can be converted into a recreation/meeting hall for the mentally ill of the community - a place where they can get out of the cold and still be welcome. But, things quickly get complicated when people start dying in and around the building and a mentally ill man is the main suspect. The characters are believable, the book is well-paced and the killer is a surprise (I thought I had it figured out for about half the book, but ... I was wrong). I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Dead Crazy by Nancy Pickard . Reviewed August of 2004.

An interesting biography, a valuable perspective Founding Father is not a long biography (199 pages), but it is an interesting piece of writing. It is split into 3 areas - about one-half of the book is straight biography, about one-third is an analysis of the character of our first president and the balance is an analysis of what it means to be a founding father, how Washington measures up to that ideal and what kind of "father" he was. Richard Brookhiser The biography section is great - straightforward and written in an engaging and lively style. The character portion bogs down quite a bit and the founding father section is interesting (it asserts that he was the kind of father who was most concerned with preparing his children for life outside of his home - life on their own. He encourage other people to step into leadership roles to fill the vacuum that would be there when he walked away from the national spotlight.) One quote, above all, highlights the best ...

Wow - I really disliked this book! Robert E. Howard (1906-1936) I had previously read Poul Anderson's take on Conan ( Conan the Rebel - posted just below this review) and found it irritating - Conan is overdone and overblown in the extreme. To my disappointment, I found that the original Conan has every feature to his character that I disliked magnified by a factor of 10 ! But, to be honest, what has turned me off with both books is both authors' use of language - it is as if they both sat with a thesaurus and looked for the macho words to substitute for the regular ones. That's okay for some scenes but for every single action Conan takes? The phrase that made me put the book down was when Conan "laughed gustily". I did too, and then I put this book down and picked up anything else. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: People of the Black Circle . Check out what the fans say. I rate this book 1 star out of 5.

Not so hot I was feeling the need to read something different, so as I walked past the new books section at the library I saw a Conan book. I've never read Conan, but one of my friends is a giant fan, so I picked it up. Poul Anderson (1926-2001) The plot was pretty simple (hero gets even with sworn enemies who have wronged him in many ways, along the way he gets to use a magical weapon and fulfill some prophecy), but it was entertaining enough, especially in the middle. The ending was way too abrupt (he completes all of the above parenthetical accomplishments in 35 pages) and the language was too clunky. I realize its a style thing, but it's like Mr. Anderson sat in front of his typewriter with a thesaurus and looked for the more macho version of each verb used to describe Conan's behavior. He never throws anything, he heaves it. He always cleaves skulls, rather than splits them. I got tired of it rather quickly. I rate this book 2 stars out of 5. Reviewed on Aug...

Originally published in 1994. Slow start - but then its a roller coaster! Allan Folsom (1941-2014) 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 ito 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...

Pretty Decent Fun Published in 1999 Yes, I hate to admit it, but I read a Star Trek novel. I haven't read one for years, but Ship of the Line was on sale at the dollar store so I picked it up. I also hate to admit it, but I liked it. The plot focuses on the time between the 2 movies Generations and First Contact . It involves Captain Morgan Bateson, the captain played by Kelsey Grammer (a.k.a. Dr. Frasier Crane) in an episode of the fifth season of the Next Generation series. It deals with his forced time travel of 90 years into the future and Picard's angst over the loss of his ship. Kirk is also in it thanks to great holodeck programs.  Kelsey Grammer as Capt. Bateson in ST:TNG. Ship of the Line is way too cluttered and the ending is hackneyed, as many things Trek are. But, it was an entertaining read. A great novel would have dealt in-depth with the issues of a captain without a ship or a man living out of his own time, but who expects to find great literature at the do...

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...

  One of the best albums I have ever heard for driving, listening and singing along.  I bought this album on the recommendation of a friend and boy am I glad I did! The lyrics are poignant and yet work. 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 be found on Amazon.com here: Too Long...

    Awesome album - the first 5 songs 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 ...

This book is up and down with an absolutely bizarre middle. Originally published in 1995. As you may know, I have taught for multiple years in urban schools. The issue of race in America has come up daily, and some days it is an ever-present feature. I am forced to think about it all of the time in the classroom and all I know is that I don't know enough to solve the issues and no one ever will.  Tony Brown is a Black man (he prefers that term) who has hosted a PBS discussion show called "Tony Brown's Journal" for years. He also hosts a Saturday talk show on WLS 890 AM out of Chicago that can be heard throughout the Midwest thanks to their high wattage broadcast strength. He is an interesting man and a good discussion leader on his shows. His views were fairly consistent with my own, although I think that his perceptions of white america are a little off, just as he would undoubtedly think that my views of black America are off. The first 1/3 and the last 1/3 ...

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.

Not his best by far. Synopsis: Adrienne Cope and Jeffrey Duran are drawn into a web of intrigue and recovered memories as they both look into the death of Adrienne's sister and Jeffrey's psychiatric patient, Nico. They discover an international conspiracy and the drama ensues. My review: This book was pretty boring for the first 168 pages - that's when stuff finally started to get moving - 1/3 of the way through the book. I'd have dropped it long before that except that I'd already read 'The Genesis Code' by this author and enjoyed it and was waiting for this one to improve. I really was disappointed. I give this book 2 stars out of 5. I would have given it a slightly better score but I know the author can do much better than this. Reviewed on August 10, 2004.

Published in 1997. Synopsis: Part of the series that features a murder in many prominent Washington, D.C. buildings, Murder at the National Gallery is all about the intrigues surrounding the opening of an art show featuring Renaissance artist Caravaggio and a "lost" piece of art that was found just in time for the show. Will the murderer be satisfied with just the murder of a member of the Italian diplomatic corps who had a reputation for stealing Italian masterpieces and selling them to foreign buyers? Are the rumors of forged paintings true? Did someone steal a priceless piece of art? My Review: Mrs. Truman knows her stuff when it comes to the Washington, D.C. social scene because yes, she is the daughter of Harry Truman. This is really a decent book. I've read others in this series and found them of varying quality. However, I found the topic interesting and I was introduced to the concept of 'Art Police.' Washington, D.C. has its very own squad to inv...

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...

Good but had such potential to be better Published in 1998 by William Morrow. I was told that Slow Burn was a disappointment. I have to agree and disagree. It is a good book - it really does approach the level of being a great farce of a detective novel. The client is outrageous and the people he investigates are larger than life throughout the story. At times, Waterman is the only sane man in the room. It makes it a fun ride - but I finished the book pleased but quite sure that it could have been even more if Ford had pushed a bit more. I would have liked for him to have met other bizarre personages that were attending the food show, but the climactic scene at the steakhouse with the helicopter and the barbecue was certainly odd and funny enough in its own right. Like all of the Waterman novels, it may behoove the reader to jot down some notes as you go along because the author does little to remind the reader who the characters are as the story progresses. The murder victim is in...

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...

A Short, Solid History Published in 2009 by Oxford University Press. Muslims in America is the "first single-author history of Muslims in America from colonial times to the present", which is what the back cover proclaims. I have no reason to doubt that this sad statement is true and for that reason this book is a welcome addition to the shelf of any serious student of American history. That being said, this book is not perfect. Since it tries to cover the entire spread of American history the first pages are about isolated Muslim individuals that were brought over as slaves, continued to follow their faith and were noted for doing so. It turns out that only a few people fit all those criteria so we end up with extended biographies of these people. This is not bad, per se, but it does make the last half of the book seemed rushed in comparison. The slow, extended style is put aside for a quicker, less detailed style. That less detailed style in the latter half of the...

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...