DWD's Reviews

I liked this book a lot except... ...the last 1/3 of it got bogged down in too much technical detail and repeated information that had been previously stated. That is too bad because the first 2/3 was well-written and informative. The Great American Gun Debate: Essays on Firearms and Violence  really is an interesting book - one that should burst some bubbles of the anti-gun crowd. The writers painstakingly analyze the statistics and the motivations of some of America's biggest gun control lobbies, including the Centers for Disease Control (did you know that they use bogus data to label handguns as a public health threat? They quote FBI data that literally does not exist - they cite the document but it does not have the statistics that they use as a justification to lobby against guns. The document doesn't even report that type of statistic!) Don't let my comments about the last 1/3 of the book deter you from reading the rest of it - it really was worth the time and

This is a typical Spenser book... ..which I happen to like. I think I've read them all and usually I am pleased. Bad Business was a keeper. Robert B. Parker Oh, to be sure, there's the required comments about Spenser and Susan's relationship and why they don't want to get married. There's the required comments about Spenser and Hawk's relationship and how they'd die for each other, etc. There's the required comments about Spenser's checkered career in law enforcement. It's a formula to be sure, but I like the formula. Spenser's comments and observations are pure gold and the case was interesting because it (sort of) explains what happened to Enron. I guess I'm over the fact that Spenser never ages (Parker must have been hearing comments because he includes a NY Times review that excuses this fact inside the dust cover at the beginning of the synopsis) - it doesn't bother me with James Bond, why should it bother me wi

  I was real happy until I got to the end -or maybe it wasn't? Rebel Moon is a fast-paced, fun sci-fi book. Set in 2069, the various colonies of the moon have revolted against the United Nations and declared their independence. The UN is not happy and responds by sending in peacekeepers to pacify things. A small, professional armed force augmented by volunteer militia fend off the UN and German forces (the world may be dominated by the UN but some individual countries still pursue their own agendas). This is a non-techno space romp. There's enough science to please most sci-fi fans but it as kept simple as we are introduced to the fighting styles of the future through the eyes of a computer geek militia member. The politics of the day are murky enough to seem plausible. I would have easily have rated this book a '4 stars' or, perhaps, even a '5 stars' if the ending had not been so terribly abrupt. Will there be a sequel. Did he just run out of time

Man oh man! Is this the same guy that wrote "Chiefs"? Originally published in 1996. I ask the question because Chiefs was an absolutely fantastic novel. One of my favorites. This story is easy to read, quick-moving and entertaining but, for me, ultimately it is disappointing because I know that he could do sooooooo much better. If you've never read Stuart Woods, read Chiefs and maybe you'd be better off just walking away. So, why am I irritated? The characters are two-dimensional cutouts of what we might suspect the rich and the famous are really like. They reminded me of unpleasant parodies of the Howells from Gilligan's Island. Woods can do so much more. To be fair, I guess I'm really irritated to see a man who showed so much early promise resort to being a hack writer, pounding out the same story time after time. I tolerate, in fact, I revel in it when it comes to Robert B. Parker. But in the case of Stuart Woods - what an incredible waste of wr

A thoughtful look at the poo-pooing of religion by secular American society I found The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religion while reading another book by Stephen L. Carter, one that I did not care for, Jericho's Fall . However, I am glad I read Jericho's Fall because I found this book listed on a page of the author's other works. Read the discussion boards on popular blogs, newspaper pages and any other site that attracts people from all walks of life and you will find a strong anti-religious bias. In fact, there is a rather insulting review of this book that does much the same on Amazon.com. Carter takes a look at this relatively new fact of American life - the secularization of everything and the expectation that religious people treat "God as a hobby" and the expectation of people not to use their religious beliefs as a framework for their lives. Fear of someone "imposing" one's religion on another rules

Interesting topic but a chore to read in many places As a history teacher, I was excited to see a whole new take on warfare so I eagerly snatched up Six-Legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War . However, as good as the information in the book is, it is a difficult read. There's a lot of repetition in the first part of the book and it just bogs down in the sections on World War II, Korea and the Cold War. A good co-author would have been my recommendation. The best two sections are the ones on the American Civil War and the last chapters on the dangers we face nowadays from the prospect of insect-based terrorism. They are shorter and move along nicely. Lockwood admits that he is not a professional historian in his introduction on page X and at times it shows. He is probably the only person to have ever asserted in print that General Henry Halleck was a good field commander after he asssumed command from Grant after the Battle of Shiloh. He assumes Halleck made