DWD's Reviews

Maurice Sendak is a staple of children's literature, much like Dr. Seuss. And, much like Dr. Seuss, there's much more going on in the books than a snappy text and some neat pictures. There's breadth and depth that don't don't have to be noted to appreciate a good surface story. Maguire brings to light some of the these oft-overlooked aspects to Sendak's work in this coffee table book. I have long been a casual fan of Sendak. I love the unique personalities of each of the monsters in Where the Wild Things Are and just a few days ago my daughter delighted with a bedtime reading of One Was Johnny: A Counting Book . Making Mischief was interesting in that it showed some of the many themes that have run throughout Sendak's career as an author of more than 20 books and the illustrator of dozens more. It is easily accessible by the serious fan and the more casual fan. The book is loaded with pictures and they are given great respect since the book is printe

Slow start, rushed ending. Land of Marvels: A Novel is set in the pre-World War I Ottoman Empire, it what will eventually become Iraq. The main characters are Somerville, a British archaeologist in the midst of leading an excavation in a Tell (the ruins of a built up area that was once a city - usually a hump in the landscape), his wife, his two suboordinate archaeologists and Jehar, an Arab "fix-it" man (he does not fix machines, he fixes situations - he smoothes out situations with the local labor, finds out information that Somerville may need and so on). As the title for this review noted, the book very slow at the beginning. One would think it would be very interesting with the spectre of international intrigue, the challenge of the excavation, the cultural chasm between British gentry and their Arab laborers. Nope, it just moved slowly along - the only interesting character, for me, was Jehar and his infatuation with a 15 year old girl. His efforts to raise the c

The reviews are right, this is an unoriginal book, everything in it has already been said (literally by McPherson himself!) but when McPherson writes about the Civil War it's worth my time to read what he has to say, and if you are at all interested in the war, it's worthy of your time as well. What is unique about the book is the focus on Lincoln as the leader of the armed forces. Yes, all histories of the war cover this aspect of Lincoln's presidency, but you have to tease it out of the larger text. For example, all of this was more than covered in Doris Kearns Goodwin's 944 page Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (an excellent read, by the way) but if you have little interest in the monetary policy of the Lincoln administration, the vagaries of the Lincoln administration's dealings with the European powers or don't care to read about the Homestead Act of 1862 (which had a profound affect on the development of the West) this may be yo

Major Talents "Slumming" a Bit for Hollywood Saying that Huxley and Isherwood are slumming by writing a screenplay is really an unfair comparison to the Hollywood of then and the Hollywood of now. Hollywood has always produced junk, but back then they were also more likely to look for those scripts that wrote about the human condition, looking to make a picture that talked about bigger issues. The introduction and the product description on the back cover tell us that Isherwood and Huxley fled Europe for the comparative freedom of Hollywood. "Jacob's Hands" really is more of a Twilight Zone effort than a traditional novel. It can best be described as a John Steinbeck type of simple 30 year old farmhand has the power to heal animals and most people with has hands. But, this wonderful gift has a lot of burdens, too. Christopher Isherwood (left) and  Aldous Huxley The novel is clearly written for the movies. Lots of the description and scene-setting is

 Victor Davis Hanson Victor Davis Hanson's Mexifornia: A State of Becoming is one of the most thorough discussions about the topic of illegal immigration that I have read. Hanson is sympathetic to the plight of the aliens, is intimately familiar with the economic aspects that draw them to America (he owns a vineyard in the Fresno area) and he is witness to the changes and hidden costs that have come to California. He discusses the issue from the point of view of the illegal alien, the employers that hire them, the taxpayers that subsidize them, the way we used to bring immigrants into the larger American culture, the way we do it (or don't do it) now. It is not an anti-immigrant rate, despite some of the comments you may read in the reviews. I found this to be a fascinating read - It is much deeper than Geraldo Rivera's The Great Progression: How Hispanics Will Lead America to a New Era of Prosperity , a book that I've recently read that covers some o

Henry Jenkins has written several books dealing with technology, media, bloggers, gamers and the like. Now with Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century he has added education to the mix. Jenkins notes several important things about the future of education (which interested me as a teacher). Formal education must address technology. It cannot be just paper and pencil. Technology is part of the modern world's media - it is not just newspapers, books, magazines, TV and movies. There are blogs, social media and a new one I hadn't really considered: video games. Jenkins encourages the use of video games to teach. There are already several games such as Sims and the various history-based empire building games that teach rules and strategies for life. Jenkins cites the example of a young man who learned a lot about Rome (and through Rome, the structures of all societies) by playing an online game, Caesar 3 . The lessons learned