DWD's Reviews

While not perfect, it is thought-provoking and a quick read Sunny Schwartz Sunny Schwartz is a Chicago-born lawyer who has worked in the San Francisco jail system for 30+ years. This book is a combination of a personal biography and professional recommendations for our nations over-worked, overcrowded and floundering jail and prison systems. Schwartz is not a hand-holding, excuse-making prisoner advocate. She notes several times that she wants criminals to be punished. She notes: "I completely understand the objections and utter impatience people have with criminals. They have hurt us, our pocketbooks, our souls." (p. 197) However, practical experience does offer some hard-won wisdom and Schwartz does have some things to suggest that might very well improve the behavior of our prisoners (remember most will become ex-prisoners some day and it would be nice if they were more in step with the rest of us). She focuses on an anti-violence program that is ba

A great read  No, I don't live in a cave, but I have not seen the movie, nor have I picked up any of the study materials. My wife read the book and recommended it to me. I'm an avid reader but I was really not looking forward to it. Why not? Well, let's face it - there's some poorly made/written stuff out there that only sells because it's family friendly or because it is "Christian". So, I reluctantly picked this one up. Boy, was I surprised. I was hooked from the first chapter and shot through this book in less than 48 hours. I've reviewed hundreds of books on Amazon.com but I am hardly a speed reader - more like a dogged one. Eric Wilson The relationship between the husband and wife characters, Caleb and Catherine, is on the rocks but seems realistic and is not overly romance novel-like. The firefighting scenes are exciting and well-done. Sure, you can see the end coming from 100 miles away but it was still well

School counseling based on character education with a Christian flavor Published in 2008 . It has become the flavor of the month in many schools to teach character education. As a teacher in a school corporation that purports to teach character but does not go beyond banners and slogans in the official school letterhead in our effort I found this book to be enlightening. Baggett is quite open with his religious beliefs throughout the book, which is appropriate - his character is greatly shaped by it. He stresses that it cannot be overtly expressed in his role as counselor at school, but it is present. Baggett sells the concept of the role of character education in schools quite well. He demonstrates the lack of character in schools and the larger society, identifies several areas that need to be addressed and lays out some general ways to address them along with references to how to address more specific needs. Throughout the book he includes literally hundreds of inspirati

Good vacation book Written in the wake of the Milli Vanilli music scandal , Steve Martini's The List features an unsuccessful female author (Abby Chandlis) who has written a book that under a male pen name (Gable Cooper) in order to make the book more marketable. So far, no big deal. Lots of authors use pen names. Several female romance authors have used pen names to write detective books and thrillers. In this case, the author actually hires a person to portray himself as the real Gable Cooper - not just in public appearances, but also in all negotiations with the agents, the publishers and Hollywood studios interested in turning the book into a movie. The reason she goes through such elaborate steps is her belief that male authors, especially handsome, charming ones, are marketed much more aggressively. Steve Martini The problem comes in the man chosen to portray Gable Cooper. He is a loose cannon, a frustrated author and, even worse, the real author comes to believ

There's a lot of meat to this "tween" novel. Quite enjoyable and discussion-provoking Emma Clayton The Roar is a more "kiddie" book than I normally read. This one is aimed at the tween crowd (the book says down to grade 3 but I can't really imagine anyone under the age of 10 getting into it) and I found it to be quite compelling despite being aimed at the younger set and the occasional clunky simile and/or phrase. The Roar has a sequel called The Whisper , which is soon to be published. The book is set in a dismal future in which religion is gone (not really mentioned but people say, "My odd!" rather than "My God!") and the environment has been destroyed by mankind to kill of the animals. 45 years before the story an animal "plague" caused all of the animals to attack people in a crazed frenzy. So, people retreated to just a few countries (UK, Canada and a few others), became part of a highly stratified socie

"What can happen to a people whose youth sacrifices everything in order to serve its great ideals?" - Adolph Hitler, October 1932 Published by Listening Library in 2006. Read by Kathrin Kana. 4 hours, 26 minutes Unabridged Susan Campbell  Bartoletti's Hitler Youth demonstrates how the Nazis separated children from the parents, their churches and their senses in an effort to make them loyal to the German state and Adolph Hitler. Starting with the story of a member of the Hitler Youth who was killed in a bloody street fight with Communist youths, Bartoletti shows the chaos in the streets that enabled Hitler to take over Germany. She also details every step that the Hitler Youth took to monopolize the lives and the attention of its young people in order to completely dominate their lives and their loyalties. The reader is introduced to a number of former members of the Hitler Youth and we are told generalities of how the Hitler Youth operated and the specifics of