DWD's Reviews

A Thrill Ride This thriller begins in a sleepy Italian village, with the village priest. He is musing over the fact that he constantly hears the same types of sins being confessed in the confessional when a local scientist/doctor comes in for confession. The reader does not know the confession, but we see the reaction: the priest flees the church and goes immediately to one of his connections in the Vatican. Whatever the sin confessed was, it has world-shaking consequences. This book brings in an ultra-conservative Catholic lay order (their motto could have been "Hey! the Inquisition wasn't all bad!"), a conspiracy to murder whole families and a professional American investigator named Joe Lassiter. The action is fast-paced and the story is well-written. The author, to his great credit, does not let you know what all the hubbub is about until the characters themselves discover it. In fact, about halfway through the book, you start to wonder if the good guys really

A look at Hollywood from an insider's point of view Published in 2009 by Simon & Schuster. 290 pages. Daniel Depp knows his way around Hollywood - he is a screenwriter and his brother is famed actor Johnny Depp (a fact I did not know until after I read the book). Loser's Town features David Spandau, a former stuntman turned private detective. Spandau is jaded and definitely not impressed with the Hollywood movie scene. Spandau is called back from vacation to take a case involving Bobby Dye, an up and coming new star on the verge of making it to the pinnacle of the Hollywood scene. But, he's receiving death threats and, more importantly, is being blackmailed. Spandau has to deal with greedy agents, flighty actors and an on again / off again relationship with his client throughout as he tracks clues through the ugly underbelly of the Hollywood scene. The book's title comes from a Robert Mitchum quote: " I came out to Los Angeles in the 30s, during th

Very readable history Paperback edition published in October 2011 by Regnery History 392 pages of text. 434 pages total. Kozak was inspired to write this book by a quote from a college lecturer: "You might not agree with his politics, but if you have a son serving in combat, you want him serving under someone like LeMay." (p. 389) Personally, LeMay has always been a caricature of a general in the periphery of the story the World War II histories and pieces of historical fiction I have read. Kozak does a masterful job of dragging LeMay into the spotlight and showing us the man, not just a caricature or a non-entity on the sidelines. General Curtis LeMay (1906-1990) Kozak tells of LeMay's hardscrabble childhood, his determination and his ability to maneuver in an impersonal bureaucracy, be it Ohio State University or the United States Army - he could always find the way up. In a way, the story of LeMay in the Air Force is the story of the Air Force itself. He

I found this and hoped for something that it was not Now, I'm not going to hold the fact that I did not read the cover very carefully against the book - that's my fault, not the book's. I was hoping for something a bit more serious, like Millar's Red Son in which Superman is raised in the USSR rather than in the USA. But, this book is a tongue-in-cheek take on Superman, based on the premise that he landed in Kent in England, rather than Kansas, USA. Co-written by Monty Python contributers (it doesn't seem quite right to call John Cleese a mere contributor), this is an irreverant look at English culture, government and media - Superman is merely the medium used to deliver these scathing attacks. A lot of the book deals with how normal people react to someone with super powers. Unfortunately, much of this ground was covered by Pixar's The Incredibles (both The Incredibles and True Brit were released in 2004) and even, to a lesser (and darker) extent

Published in 1991 by Tor. This is an odd effort in many ways. Coming in at just 211 pages of text (plus about 20 pages of appendices), this is a tiny Michener book. It is even more tiny when you consider that 28 pages of this book is a forward by Michener and about 20 pages of the book are taken up with blank pages between chapters and illustrations. This Michener paperback was published in 1991 by Tor, a publishing house more well-known for its sci-fi and fantasy offerings. I would imagine that they just wanted to cash in on the Michener name since he was in the midst of a real hit streak with such books as Alaska , Caribbean and  Poland becoming best-sellers. Tor calls this book a novel, although only a few pages really qualify as a novel, with inserted character dialogue that was most likely created by Michener. The rest of it is really best described as a comparative biography. While not the best of historical works, "The Eagle and the Raven" provides a compari

Rodriguez writes a rambling, insightful and interesting work Published by Blackstone Audio in 2008 Duration: 8 hours, 14 minutes I first learned of Richard Rodriguez on C-Span's Booknotes program. He was an invited guest of First Lady Laura Bush to speak at an author's fair that she started hosting in Texas while she was the First Lady of Texas. Rodriguez was promoting his book Brown at the the time and I thought his observations were wonderful. Days of Obligations is in a similar vein, but not nearly as focused. He does (primarily) focus on the differences between Mexico and the United States Two interesting observations from Mexicans about America include: 1) "America is 'Organized'. Passive voice. Rodriguez notes that there seems to be no connection that actual Americans do the organizing. Rather it's almost like it is fate that America is organized. 2) Americans have too much freedom. Rodriguez digresses from his Mexico/America discu

A pleasant enough read but Paolini seriously needs to send an apology to George Lucas... I enjoyed the book but I kept on thinking that I've read this book before. No, I'm not talking about the obvious debt Paolini owes the Tolkein and also to the "Dragonriders of Pern" series. I'm talking Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope or plain old Star Wars to all of us old-timers. Both feature an orphaned teenage farmboy, left with his uncle under mysterious circumstances that no one wants to discuss. The uncle dies when dangerous outsiders come looking for the boy. Luke Skywalker has the Force. Eragon has magic. Both Luke and Eragon are watched over by strange older men who eventually provide them with their first weapon (the very weapon that wiped out a set of good knights in the name of an evil emperor), taught them magic (the Force) and how to fight. The older man dies. Eragon frees a girl from a castle with the help of that wanted-by-the-law Ro