DWD's Reviews

Great twists. Good book. Abridged version leaves some things out. Published by Brilliance Audio Read by Dale Hull Duration: About 3 hours Abridged Just to let you know, I heard The Pied Piper as an abridged audiobook. I will discuss specific issues about the audiobook aspect of it later. This was a scary, sad thriller. Children are being abducted from their bedrooms across Seattle and, in reality, all across the country and Seattle's finest are out to stop the kidnappings. Obstacles in their path include very poor teamwork with the FBI and there's another kidnapping very close to home...but I won't spoil it for you by telling you who. Good police work ensues and it is satisfying to go along with the police as they slowly amass their clues and get closer and closer. Once the reader finds out the truth, there's still quite a bit of work to do to wrap it all up - including a cross-country chase. Its a good, good thriller and I would have given it 5 stars but ...

A Heartwarming remembrance and tribute to Barney the beagle Published in 2004. If you lived in Central Indiana from the mid-90s to 2003 you probably saw Barney - Dick Wolfsie's canine sidekick and faithful companion for literally thousands of segments of the WISH-TV morning show. He wasn't a prop or a gag (he was too poorly trained for that) - he was his own man (!) on the show. He was goodwill ambassador and class clown and all beagle. Barney: The Stray Beagle Who Became a TV Star and Stole Our Hearts is a light-hearted book - full of Wolfsie's wonderful memories - the good and the bad. Really, it's a fluff piece - but this piece of fluff caused my eyes to tear up more than once as he spoke of the day his beloved Barney died and the immediate outpouring of love and concern that central Indiana expressed. Truly a wonderful little book - be prepared to laugh (my wife and I read parts of it to each other and enjoyed it all the more) but also have the tissues handy!...

Good thriller set against a series of coincidences Originally published in 1981. Margolin comes through with The Last Innocent Man , a book that keeps the pages turning but at times I wondered about the series of incredible coincidences that linked all of the characters together (I won't go into them here, for fear of revealing too much of the plot for those who have not yet read the book). Are you looking for a book that leads the protagonist through a series of difficult choices until finally everything is forced to come to a head? If so, then this is your book. However, be aware that you'll be forced to suspend your sense of disbelief from time to time as well. I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Last Innocent Man .  Reviewed on September 10, 2004.

Good thriller plot overcomes other issues Originally published in 1999. Read by Benjamin L. Darcie Duration: 14 hours, 44 minutes Unabridged Just so you'll know, I am reviewing Cuba as an audiobook - I listened to it as an audiobook and as an audiobook it was pretty good, meaning that I never really wondered if there was something else on the radio that was better. As to the plot - I found it to be especially interesting to have the book focus on the presence of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Cuba, considering our situations in Iran and North Korea and the famed search for WMD in Iraq. The descriptions of the power of these weapons and the reasons that tin-pot dictators and superpowers possess them was informative. As always, Coonts writes wonderful action sequences. His characters are sometimes a bit stiff, especially with his American cabinet officials. Quibbles I have with the book: -Sometimes there's so much tech-speak that it bogs the story down. At times, ...

Great change of pace for G.M. Ford Published in 2001. Ford's new hero is Frank Corso - he's hard to get a read on, he's a loner (with friends), he's difficult (but is smooth when he interviews), he's trustworthy and, most importantly, he loves to put his nose into other people's business, especially when he smells a good story. G.M. Ford Ford introduces a variety of characters to fill out Corso's world and I think it works very well. The pacing of the book is excellent and I oftentimes found myself having to force myself to put it down so I could go on with the rest of my day. This book is darker and more serious than the Waterman books, mostly because there isn't the comic relief supplied by the homeless crowd from the neighborhood bar, The Zoo. For those fans of Leo Waterman, he makes a cameo appearance at the beginning. I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: FURY by G.M. Ford . Reviewed September 7,...

An excellent introduction to the topics of slavery and the Underground Railroad. Published by Clarion Books in 2000. While Bound for the North Star: True Stories of Fugitive Slaves is obviously aimed for the "young adult" crowd, it would serve as an excellent primer for ANYONE interested in learning more about that sad, sad topic in America's history: slavery . Harriet Tubman The author includes 12 stories about slaves who escaped north, mostly with the help of the Underground Railroad. Each story describes a different type of escape or incident - varying from the case of Solomon Northrup - a free black man who was drugged and sold into slavery while he was working in Washington, D.C. to John "Fed" Brown, a field slave who traveled a roundabout trip to freedom covering thousands of miles to John Price - an escaped slave who was captured in Ohio, but was eventually freed thanks to the near-riot of the Oberlin College community. The book ends up with the ...

Published in 2002 by Chicago Review Press Oddball Indiana: A guide to Some Really Strange Places does a great job of showing some of the odd things that make the Hoosier state unique, including Santa Claus, IN and the world's largest steer (he's stuffed). It also turns out that Indiana is the birthplace of Wonder Bread, Alka Seltzer, Corn Flakes, Pork and Beans and the unique shape of the Coca-Cola bottle. He includes driving directions that look to be accurate (I am familiar with some of these places) although a good map of Indiana would also be required to even find some of the towns that he mentions. He includes several pictures, which generally are helpful. Indiana - birthplace of this and many more wonders. This really could have been a charming little book - one that I would have been 100% enthused about except for the author's fascination with Hoosiers Dan Quayle (not in a positive way, either) and Jim Jones (the cult leader who led his 900+ followers in a ma...

Reasons I recommend The Rundown : Released in 2003. 1. The Rock. He fits perfectly into this light-hearted action movie. 2. Christopher Walken has a great time doing a parody of himself throughout the movie. He's hilarious as he does his Walken-esque soliloquies for everyone except the people that might actually have gotten a clue from his ramblings and figured out that this backwoods bad guy has more than one screw loose. 3. The movie is funny. Lots of good lines and situations to go around. 4. The fight scenes - they are stylized and absolutely unrealistic but artfully done. The DVD includes deleted scenes - but does not tell the viewer why they were deleted. I always find that to be most interesting, especially when the scene looks to me like it should have stayed in. The extra interviews are pretty interesting as well. I rate this movie 4 stars out of 5. This movie can be found on Amazon.com here: The Rundown . Reviewed in 2004.

Entertaining and oddball - loved the Brad Pitt character Released in 2000. To make it short, I'll mention what I liked: -I liked the use of commentary by Turkish and Tommy during the movie - they serve as the de facto narrators. -I liked the rapid-cut intro and the way the director used the security cameras to show us the progress of the diamond thieves during the opening credits. -I really liked the Brad Pitt character. Take full advantage of your DVD's ability to make subtitles because you'll need it with all of the accents - especially Brad Pitt's. -the dog was fun (and hungry). Dennis Farina -I liked the way all of the characters were sleazy and yet markedly different from one another. -I like the fact that the DVD includes deleted scenes with commentary. I did not like the fact that the commentary usually did not tell me why the scene was deleted. I rate this movie 4 stars out of 5. This DVD can be found on Amazon.com here: Snatch (Special Ed...

Likable characters, goofy ending, everyone's oversexed Published in 1996 . First the positives: -likeable characters. - Do Not Go Gently is well-written, in that it was easy to follow and the characters stayed true all of the way through. Now, the negatives: -the ending has such a plot twist that you might as well have had Darth Vader or Charles Manson committing all of the murders - there were as many clues pointing to them as there were to the killer. Really, this comes so far out of left field that no one will see it coming - and I felt like I was the victim of some bad practical joke. -The killer's motive is so bizarre and he has gone to such lengths to follow through with his plan that one would think that he would have actually ended up in an asylum long before he is sprung upon the reader as the Surprise! real killer. -EVERY character is constantly thinking about sex - it seems that it's all they talk about and all they think about. It's a wonder t...

Fascinating book - lots of fun to read. Thoroughly enjoyable. Published in 2003 by Plume. "Who doesn't love a carnival, fair or amusement park? They have everything you could ask for: Fried food, dangerous-looking rides, macho games, freak shows, meat-on-a-stick, champion milking cows, and teenagers dressed up as giant stuffed animals...If that's not America, what is?" The Marion County Fair - Indianapolis. That's the opening quote of Carnival Undercover that tells you all the ins and outs of the carnival business - everything from the economics involved in owning a booth to how to become a carnie to ride safety to the freak shows. It also tells you how to win at certain games, the inside skinny on some of the major theme parks (did you know that Disney World has an underground vacuum powered garbage removal - much like the system at your bank's drive through window - so that you don't have to see any garbage being hauled through the park?) and w...

This is one great book. Originally published in 1997. The Red Heart  is based on the true story of Francis Slocum, a 4 year old Quaker girl who was kidnapped by Delaware Indians in the 1770s on the Pennsylvania frontier near Wilkes-Barre. (There are recreation areas named for her in both Pennsylvania and Indiana) A painting of Francis Slocum that is part of the collection at the Indiana State Museum It is also the story of her family's 60 year search for her across the Midwest and even into Canada. It is also the story of the relentless westward movement of the Americans and how the Indians dealt with it. The reader also gets a fantastic lesson on daily life among the Delaware and Miami Indians. If you're a Star Trek: The Next Generation fan you'll remember the episode entitled "Inner Light" in which Picard is "attacked" by the alien probe from the long-dead world that makes him live an entire lifetime among their people in his mind in ...

A roller coaster of good and bad writing Published in 1993. Don't Speak to Strangers is like riding a roller coaster - not because of its thrills, but because sometimes it is very poorly written and sometimes it is really quite good. The author does a pretty good job of making you wonder why this boy is singled out by the kidnapper - but when I found out why I didn't really buy it. His attempts at escape are interesting but the FBI agents are pretty lame (the female agent is hyper-concerned at being treated as an equal but is always having heart palpitations when her cute boss stands near her). So, it is a choppy read. I rate this book 3 stars out of 5. Reviewed in 2004. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Don't Speak to Strangers by Marion Rosen . 

Good, thought provoking Published in 1997 by Crown. I n The Warrior Generals: Combat Leadership in the Civil War , Buell analyzes three Confederate and three Union generals with six very different leadership styles. Buell gives a title to each of the six different men and they are: The Yeoman: Ulysses S. Grant The Aristocrat: Robert E. Lee The Knight-Errant: John Bell Hood The Roman: George H. Thomas The Cavalier: John B . Gordon The Puritan: Francis C. Barlow Buell researched this book heavily, including delving into the National Archives to the point that he actually found boxes of papers from the Civil War that had not even been opened since they were packaged and delivered after the war, a fact that I find amazing given the vast number of books written on the war every year. Buell is quite clear in his book that Robert E. Lee was vastly overrated and quite possibly incompetent (he never says it outright but he infers it). I agree that Lee has been overrated by some...

A different kind of Spenser book Published in 2009. Spenser is back with a different type of mystery, and not necessarily for the better. I'm a big fan of a younger, tougher Spenser. A Spenser that was hassled by the cops, fought with the bad guys and generally spent his time wisecracking himself into and out of tough scrapes. Sadly, The Professional is not that. This one is filled full of relationship discussions (I think Oprah actually moderated some of the scenes!), including more of the endless talk between Spenser and Susan about the nature of their relationship. Lots of talk about sex, the role of sex in a love relationship and, of course, Susan and Spenser have sex about 47 times. Robert B. Parker The mystery is a simple blackmailing case that gets out of control. All of Spenser's "friends" make an appearance and most help him for no reason that I can ascertain except for shared history, including Vinnie, Ty-Bop, Tony Marcus and an oversexed Hawk. T...

I found Sacco's other work Palestine to be much more revealing, balanced and just better Originally published by Metropolitan Books in 2009. I was thrilled to find Joe Sacco had written another graphic novel because I found Sacco's work Palestine: The Special Edition to be a revealing and balanced work that took me into one of those places that everyone has heard of but really knows nothing about. Footnotes in Gaza focuses on a "footnote" in the 1956 Suez War in which Israel, England and France attacked Egypt and Gaza was overwhelmed by the Israeli Defense Forces. There were two civilian massacres of a combined total of 300-400 males of military age, mostly Palestinian, but there may have been a few Egyptian soldiers in civilian clothes in the mix as well. Sacco's artwork remains stark and powerful and unique. No one portrays emotions such as anguish and fear as well as well as Sacco. This work is rambling, nearly 100 more pages than the book "Pal...

Written in 1910, still relevant a century later. G.K. Chesterton's What's Wrong With the World is not a bit of light reading. There are heady thoughts throughout and the reader is invited to do some of the heavy lifting as well. I don't agree with all of Chesterton's conclusions either but he does have a wonderful way with words. Have you ever had an argument with someone in which you thoroughly disagreed with some of their points but admired the way they laid them out and their turns of the phrase? That is my experience with G.K. Chesterton in a nutshell. I only picked up this volume because I read somewhere that C.S. Lewis was a devoted fan of Chesterton. G.K. Chesterton Be prepared, there is no one thing that is wrong with the world - it is a collection of things. Of course, any thinking person knows that there are always a collection of problems that are inter-related and cause all sorts of things to be wrong in the world. Chesterton is strongly pro-C...

Cul de Sac hits the spot left by Calvin and Hobbes and Peanuts Published in 2010. If you can while away a pleasant afternoon or evening reading a collection of Calvin and Hobbes or Peanuts add this one to your collection right now! I only recently discovered Cul de Sac on the internet and have been enjoying it enough that I grabbed this book. Clever lines, interesting art and enough of real life to make me read cartoons to my wife and say, "Who does this remind you of?" (page 24's shopping experience is so much like my own 2 children that I suspect someone may have been watching us at the store...) Gentle, clever, good-humored, keenly observant...a worthy heir to the position held by Peanuts and Calvin and Hobbes in my mind. Highly recommended. I rate this collection 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Children at Play: A Cul de Sac Collection by Richard Thompson Reviewed on October 27, 2009.

My first foray into P.J. O'Rourke's books Published by Brilliance Audio Duration: 5 hours, 48 minutes Read by Dick Hill Unabridged I've read some of P.J. O'Rourke's columns and have heard an interview or two so I knew that I would most likely find one of his books to be most interesting. To begin with, I found Peace Kills: America's Fun New Imperialism mostly dead-on accurate and depressing. Observations about the War in Bosnia, human nature in general and Israel were factually interesting but mostly deflating. Not that I am overly optimistic about human nature (being both a history major and a Lutheran has given me a fairly low opinion about the character of humanity) but P.J.'s account was even getting to me. But, in the middle it picks up - ironically with his description of 9/11 and the days that followed in Washington, D.C. I found his observations to be keen, interesting and, in an odd way, hopeful. His descriptions of the pro-Palestinian/a...

I am the guy the book is aimed at (a Conservative that is an active member of a teacher's union) and I found it only okay... Published in 2009 by Encounter Books. To give you an idea about how serious of a conservative I am, my bookmark was a copy of "Imprimis" (Hillsdale College's free newsletter featuring excerpts from speeches by conservatives). I picked I Can't Believe I'm Sitting Next to a Republican: A Survival Guide for Conservatives Marooned Among the Angry, Smug, and Terminally Self-Righteous up sight unseen, figuring it would be organized like one of those "Guide for Dummies" books. The book is intended to be a "survival guide" for Conservatives that are out of place - the conservative college professor, social worker, or in my case, the conservative active and involved member of a teacher's union. As I said, I thought it might be a hoot, especially if it were organized like one of those "Dummies" books, imagini...