DWD's Reviews

Great sci-fi always asks, "What if...?" and gives the reader something to think about. Published in 2012 by Dutton (Penguin Group) The premise behind Kill Decision is really quite simple: What if the concept of attack drones was re-thought a bit and instead of having them be small airplanes carrying big missiles, have them be the size of hobby-sized toy helicopters (about the size of a two year old person) and instead of spending almost $17 million per drone (according to Wikipedia) you spend just a few thousand dollars per drone and have them attack low and in close and in a swarm? Think about it. Instead of one $17 million drone that fires a missile that may or may not hit its target,  let's say you have 170 $100,000 drones that swarm over an area using facial recognition software that already exists (the government uses more advanced versions of it but you may already be familiar with the simple recognition system Facebook uses to let you tag people and your...

Published in December of 2013 as an e-book Simon is the second least popular kid in his summer camp.  Sadly, the least popular kid in camp, Charlie Fergle, is going home and Simon knows he will be be the target of the nightly rounds of "truth or dare."  But, Simon does not want to leave his summer camp because he has met the girl of his dreams, Opal Finley. Well, he hasn't really met her properly. He has admired her from afar, he has tried to speak to her and he has failed in spectacular fashion every time. So far, this makes TRUTH and DARE sound like a horrible short story, but it is actually very funny and very sweet.  This is my first short story by Nathanael Green, but I can guarantee it won't be my last. I rate this short story 5 stars out of 5. This story can be found on Amazon.com here: Truth and Dare by Nathanael Green. Reviewed on January 25, 2014

  Published by Simon and Schuster Audio in December of 2013. Read by Linda Emond Duration: 1 hour, 56 minutes This short story is designed to go between books 15 & 16 in the series and is the audiobook version of a kindle e-book that was released in the summer of 2013. In Bones In Her Pocket forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan is called out to a remote location called Mountain Island Lake. It is the site of an artist colony and a raptor rescue center (they help deal with injured hawks, eagles and owls as well as advocate for policies that will help those animals). A body was found floating in a canvas bag that floated up in the aftermath of a serious flood. As Brennan figures out whose body was found she soon discovers that there is no shortage of suspects... This is my first Kathy Reichs book of any sort. To her credit, Reichs did not lose this newbie to her series despite the short length of the audiobook. The story moves along quickly and is ...

"Focus" lacks focus Published in 2013 by HarperCollins. Read by the author, Daniel Goleman. Duration: 8 hours, 8 minutes. Unabridged Dr. Daniel Goleman is best known as the author of Emotional Intelligence . In many ways this book is less of a book about the importance of focus and more of a sequel to Emotional Intelligence . It is also a anti-global warming manifesto, an education reform book, a self-help book for business leaders who want to be the real leaders in their offices and there is a little bit about how people are able to focus their attentions a bit more and get better results. That, of course, is the problem with the book called Focus . The primary topic should be the ability of people to focus and some hints to help you focus better. The book starts out with exactly this...well, focus. We learn how a store detective is able to focus on a crowded room full of bustling and sort out the normal shopping behaviors from the actions of a shoplifter. Golem...

Originally published in 1971. Audiobook edition published by HighBridge Audio in 2013. Read by Brian Holsopple  Duration: 6 hours, 1 minute. Ross Thomas (1926-1995) is a multiple Edgar Award winner. HighBridge Audio is going back and re-releasing a number of his books as audiobooks.  The Backup Men is #3 in the four part Mac McCorkle series. I had not read or listened to any books by Ross Thomas before this one and, to his credit, Thomas did an extraordinary job of getting this newbie listener up to speed rather quickly. Mac McCorkle is a part owner of a rather fancy restaurant in Washington, D.C. that he calls a "saloon." His partner is Mike Padillo who used to work for the CIA or a similar government entity (he is never quite clear about this) and is well-known in the professional hitman/bodyguard/spy community.  Padillo is approached by a couple of well-known members of his professional community, a set of nearly identical male and female twins, the Got...

First published in November of 2012. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first Harry Bosch book, Michael Connelly has Harry re-visit a case from twenty years ago in The Black Box . The book starts with a flashback to the Rodney King Riots in 1992. There were so many questionable deaths during the riots (more than 50) that LAPD put out rolling homicide teams that documented scenes as well as possible until they were called out to yet another death. Harry Bosch and this then-partner Jerry Edgar made up one was on one of those teams.  Most of the victims they dealt with were people local to the neighborhoods where they were found so Anneke Jespersen, a foreign press photographer from Denmark stuck out and Harry Bosch always remembered her and felt guilty because he knew that he did not do a good job of starting the investigation into her murder due to the chaos of the riot - the investigation was barely started when they were called to another scene and by the time a true ...

I thought this was cute. It comes from Random House in Canada.