DWD's Reviews

The next best thing to The Far Side Speed Bump is the next best thing to The Far Side - it is one of those smart and funny comics that make you think and laugh all at the same time. If you're the kind of person that cuts out comics and sticks them up at the office, this is your type of comic. Coverly has Just One %$#@ Speed Bump After Another broken up into themes and has a little introduction (one written by Rick Kirkman, the guy who draws "Baby Blues.") These are all clever (especially the one in which he describes a typical cartoonist's day). Well, you'll have to excuse me now, I'm off to the scanner to make a few copies of some cartoons for the office! I rate this collection 5 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Speed Bump by Dave Coverly . Reviewed on June 20, 2008.

Entertaining, not terribly deep Much like a typical day on Glenn's show, An Inconvenient Book: Real Solutions to the World's Biggest Problems is fun, easy to digest, all over the place and sometimes a bit kooky. Glenn starts out with a bang with his anti-Al Gore chapter and it is strong. In the middle he gets off track with chapters like the one about chick flcks and guy movies, blind dates and the one about aging (I fail to see how wearing a toupee or not is one of the world's biggest problems). His constant cheap shots on overweight people is not endearing, either. However, his chapters on the United Nations, political correctness, college education and the minimum wage are all very strong. He ends up with his pet theory that America is being led towards a Mexican-American-Canadian united country. He discusses this from time to time on his show. He makes a weak case in his book and it is a dud of a chapter to end with. Not having footnotes, endnotes o

A solid bit of historical fiction For this Hoosier reviewer, The Massacre at Fall Creek is most interesting since the places involved are no more than a 45 minute drive from my house. Jessamyn West  (1902-84) Jessamyn West does a great job of getting the "feel" of an 1824 frontier community - how small it was, how truly far away it was from "civilization" and how that isolation created a unique culture. The storyline is based on a real incident in which several white men from a community to the north of Pendleton, Indiana killed two families of Indians, including their children and stole their furs. Records from those days are "iffy" at best so West has to fill in a lot of blanks as she goes along. In fact, she even uses fake names for the white men involved, although it may be that in the 33 years since her book was written additional research has revealed the names of the men. Of course, the Indians were outraged at this treaty

An informative book without an ax to grind from someone who was really there (who also knows how to write well!) Rory Stewart If the Iraq war interests you in any way, even if you are a partisan of the pro-war or anti-war persuasion, read The Prince of the Marshes: And Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq. Rory Stewart was a member of the CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority). He functioned as governor of Amara province in Southern Iraq - a semi-swampland where the Tigras and Euphrates come together. His tale is a tale of success, failure, friendship, war, violence, trust and betrayal. In other words, his is a story of real people in a very difficult situation with the compounded challenges of religious, language and cultural barriers. Here's what you learn from this book: -Success in Iraq is best measured on a relative scale and will ultimately have to be determined by the Iraqis themselves - on their terms with their leaders. -Iran is defini

Strong, but not for those who are not well-versed in history   Alister McGrath Let me just note that Alister McGrath has taken on a large topic (Protestantism) in Christianity's Dangerous Idea and done about as well as one can in organizing the information and presenting it in a cogent and readable fashion. McGrath assumes that you already know a lot about history in general and about the last 500 years or so in particular. That is to be expected. If he had to explain every last detail this book it would have to have been 3,000 pages rather than the already hefty 478 pages of text plus 50+ pages of endnotes. If you are a person that has heard of the Huguenots, but is not sure if they are a native group in South Africa or a religious group in France, this book is not for you. This is not a complete history, either. It is an overview. If you are looking for a complete history of a particular denomination, you are likely to be disappointed. Some denominations

Not very good First the positives: The over-arching storyline of A Faint Cold Fear is really a pretty good story. I did want to know who did it so I read until the very end. Now, the negatives: Too many characters that are introduced just once and then continually referred to from that moment on by their first name. There are nearly 20 characters that I am supposed to remember with no reminder of what they do in the plot. Just a name and I have to go back in to the book and look up who Kevin or Richard was. Plot items are brought in (the arrow drawn in the dirt outside the dorm window, for example) that are a big deal for about 3 pages and then are totally dropped. Lena. Her behavior is insane. She's terrified to be touched (being the victim of a horrific rape), afraid to be out of control and yet she goes to a rave party full of drugs, gets drunk and loses control with a dangerous man who has already hurt her. The relationship between Lena and Chief Je