DWD's Reviews

Are you sure you saw what you think you saw? In a fascinating, humorous and insightful book Chabris and Simons point to the research that shows that you really don't know what you think you know. Why not? Because you're simply not paying attention. Or, maybe you've convinced yourself that they way you think it happened is the way it happened. Or, maybe you are just a horrible judge of your own capabilities. Whichever the cause, we really don't know what we think we know. Chabris and Simons look at research (such as their famous "gorilla" experiment - click here to see it on youtube ), well known events (such as the infamous Neil Reed/Bobby Knight "choking" incident), popular fallacies (such as eyewitnesses being infallible and subliminal messages in movies and TV), continuity errors in movies (and real life experiments that explain why we don't notice them in movies) and faulty conclusions that are promoted by other authors (they are especi

Fantastic. A must for Petty fans and fans of NASCAR history. Published in 2009 by Audiobook Publishing, LLC. 4 CDs Running time: approximately 4 hours Richard Petty sits down with his cousin and long-time crew chief Dale Inman (the only crew chief to win 8 championships) for a retrospective on their legendary careers with Barney Hall, the famed radio voice of NASCAR for 40 years on MRN. Barney begins the interview by having the two cousins tell about their early lives in rural North Carolina. They tell about how they got involved in Lee Petty's racing operation as part-time garage help after school and how, once Richard turned 21, they were able to start racing themselves. The give and take between these two cousins and, more importantly, long-time friends makes this a fun trip down memory lane. Petty's Dodge Charger,  a legendary ride As the interview moves along following Richard's career bits of audio from races are included as well as interviews with Ri

Written like a textbook with double columns, American History Revised is intended to be a supplement to the history your high school textbook ignored or glossed over. This is a fine goal because almost every history textbook is a dry, tedious tome that bores its readers to sleep before they can learn any history. "American History Revised" approaches this challenge with a scatter-gun style of random facts that are very loosely grouped into categories like "Forgotten by History", "In Pursuit of Riches" and "Simple Mathematics, My Dear Watson." I can only imagine that those who are not already well-acquainted with history would find this jumping back and forth style quite confusing. But, that is not the reason for my concern. I am concerned because there are blatant untruths throughout the text. "Facts" that are not facts. Please note that I an reviewing an uncorrected proof and maybe, just maybe these items have been addressed i

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