DWD's Reviews

     Enjoyable Synopsis: Like the cover says, The Life and Times of the Apostle Paul is "a colorful retelling of the world's most famous mission story." St. Paul by Masaccio Ball is an amateur expert on the 1st century Roman empire and has personally led tour groups throughout the cities that Paul visited during his mission trips to Asia Minor and Greece. He covers Paul's life from early childhood in his work so it must be considered historical fiction since so many details of Paul's life and his trips are not covered in the book of Acts or in his epistles. It is an enjoyable book - not a great work by any means but I enjoyed reading it and felt that I learned a little something along the way as well. The details on the life around the Jerusalem temple and about the cities Paul visited make it worth reading, even if you are not a great fan of Paul. I give this book 4 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Life and Times of

      240 beautiful, beautiful pictures Scott Russell Sanders With an introduction by Scott Russell Sanders ("This Piece of the Earth We Call Indiana") Wild and Scenic Indiana is a beautiful collection of more than 240 pictures of all parts of (mostly) rural Indiana taken by professional photographer Rich Clark. Clark moved to Indiana from Colorado and, as he puts it, has "ceased to be amazed at how alluringly beautiful my chosen state is." (pg. 7) Clark has mastered capturing what he calls "Indiana's demure beauty" (pg. 7) and he proudly shows them off on the oversized 12 in X 12 in full color pages. The book is broken up into chapters based on the physiographic map of Indiana. This means it is based on the major geographical zones of the state. It is an odd way to organize the book, but it does have a certain sense of logic to it. This is a beautiful coffee table book, one that any Hoosier would be pleased to flip through. I rate th

 I discovered this series earlier this summer and I've been looking at a few of them. My 4th grade daughter has loved the series and I have as well. That being said, You Wouldn't Want to Be Tutankhamen!: A Mummy Who Really Got Meddled With is not quite as good as the rest of the series, which means it is merely the cleverest, funniest, most interestingly illustrated book that a child aged 9-12 or so can pick up concerning King Tut. I like the series because kids learn without having to read some of the more tedious books out there (such as the great majority of the history textbooks out there!) There are other books in this series that cover Ancient Egypt, including: You Wouldn't Want to Be a Pyramid Builder: A Hazardous Job You'd Rather Not Have and You Wouldn't Want to Be an Egyptian Mummy! I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. Reviewed on July 7, 2009. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: You Wouldn't Want to Be Tutankhamen!: A Mummy Who R

  As a classroom history teacher, I realize that I am out of my league in reviewing this book. Charles and Mary Beard are "name brand" historians. There are precious few historians that make it to that level, and for me, a classroom teacher, to deign to review the work of a historian that has an entire school corporation named for him (in his hometown of Knightstown, IN) takes some professional chutzpah on my part. It's the equivalent of a local bar band writing a criticism of the Beatles or a piano student evaluating Chopin. Well, here's to chutzpah! On a general level, this is an excellent textbook. Two general themes of the Beards are: 1) economics is a dominant driver of history. 2) America is a story of expanding rights - more groups of people are securing their rights as time goes on. The book focuses on social issues such as how things were manufactured and societal heirarchy rather than battles, wars and strategies. For example, the Battles of Lex

On September 11, 2001 the United States closed its air space in reaction to the 9/11 attacks because it was unknown if there were more attacks planned. While this certainly made sense it created certain problems for the planes that were inbound. Where would they go if they did not have enough fuel to return to their aiports of departure? It turns out that Gander, Newfoundland had a ready-built solution for 38 planes carrying 6,595 passengers - a gigantic Cold War era runway that was big enough to be an emergency landing runway for a space shuttle. Jim DeFede Upon landing, the problem ceased to be a technical problem and quickly became a human problem - what do you do with 6,595 people in a relatively poor town of barely 10,000 people? Jim DeFede relates the story of church groups, community groups, schools and local businesses rising to the occasion and welcoming strangers from all over the world for 6 days. They slept in their schools, churches, community centers and e

Leland Gregory is a co-author of America's Dumbest Criminals: Wild and Weird Stories of Fumbling Felons, Clumsy Crooks, and Ridiculous Robbers , a book filled with a series of short, mostly humorous "filler on a newspaper page" type stories. Leland Gregory He follows this format with Stupid Christmas , a book full of short (1-2 pages) stories about Christmas. Some are amusing stories about Christmas history, some are about Christmas criminals, some are sweet and touching and some are just about Christmas oddities such as the middle school teacher that drove his student around town to vandalize Christmas displays, including putting some in compromising positions, so to speak. Unfortunately, unlike the criminal themed book, which has the entire realm of criminal activity to draw from, this book feels a bit limited by the Christmas theme. Too many repetitive stories about drunken Santas. This is a great "bathroom book" - just something to pick up and