DWD's Reviews

Published by Random House Audio in June of 2014 Read by Paul Michael Duration: 19 hours, 42 minutes Unabridged   Jeff Shaara is well-known by fans of military historical fiction. The Smoke at Dawn is his fifth book about the Civil War, the third about the campaign in The Western Theater. This book picks up a few months after Grant's victory at Vicksburg and focuses on Chattanooga. The crushing defeat at Chickamauga suffered by Union General Rosecrans was a terrible blow after the Union's massive twin victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg just two months earlier. Confederate General Braxton Bragg swept Rosecrans' army from the Chickamauga battlefield and they fled back to the safety of Chattanooga. Bragg's forces occupy the mountains that surround Chattanooga and have effectively laid siege to the city. Already, the Union forces are suffering and Rosecrans seems confused about what to do next. Luckily, Bragg is worried about dissension among his own junior officer...

Published in 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers The Civil War was, in many ways, the world's first modern war. The submarine was invented, the machine gun was introduced, aerial reconnaissance was used and metal warships ruled the seas. It was also a war that featured all aspects of the media of the day. Propaganda songs like "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" were written, speeches were given all over the country, those same speeches were re-read in newspapers. Those newspapers were openly partisan on every issue of the day. And, one of the best ways to express these partisan opinions was political cartoons. This book is filled with political cartoons describing the issues that brought on the war, cartoons inspired by the people and fighting in the war and a light discussion of the end of the war. Almost all of the cartoons are excellent and they provide a jumping off point for discussion of the events as they are portrayed in chronological order.  Below is a carto...

Originally published in 2004. Some authors are fastidious about their books being written in the order that events happen to the character. So, the events in book 5 will follow the events in books 3 and 4 and precede the events in books 6 and 7. Lee Child does not feel the need to do that in his Reacher series. While this book is number 8 in the order of publication, it is the first chronologically which makes it a great place to start the series. Reacher is in the Military Police and has just been re-assigned from the invasion of Panama to remove General Manuel Noriega in December of 1989 to Fort Bird in North Carolina. It is New Year's Eve and just at the stroke of midnight Reacher gets a call. A General is dead in a seedy hotel off base. It turns out he died from heart attack while he was just starting an intimate moment with a mystery partner. Reacher is not too worried about things until he notes that the General's briefcase is missing. So, Reacher starts digg...

An intriguing mix of the old to make something new Published in March of 2016 The best cooks can take a couple of tired old recipes and do something special to mix them together and make something that feels like it is brand new.    Mishell Baker has taken bits of several popular movies and thrown them together with a a couple of well-known book genres and created something entirely unique in Borderline . Take a handful of Jack Nicholson's 1974 classic movie  Chinatown , fold it into Will Smith's Men in Black , add to it a pinch of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis   and a giant handful of Stephen R. Donaldson's Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever  and you have an approximation of what this book is like. It is a crazy jumbled mess that comes pretty close to being brilliant. Millie Roper is a former film student who shattered her body when she jumped off a building in an attempted suicide. She suffers from mental illness, has two prosthetic le...

Published in 2008 Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett is still on special assignment from the Governor. What this means is he has no home territory and is always on the edge of being fired But, he is kept around because he has a knack for solving big problems involving dangerous people. Joe's strength does not come from his tracking ability (he's good but not great), or his ability as a crack shot (he's horrible with a pistol) or his abilities as an outdoorsman (he is very good but he is not a survivalist). No - his strength comes from his own family and from a sense that the rules are important. Joe is a straight arrow who does all that he can to stay within the rules. IF he has break one of those rules, he does not rest easily. Joe is called away from a long-needed session of household chores to a crime scene in a hunting camp. The only thing he knows is that it is a gruesome scene. The sheriff and the Warden that now covers his old territory race to the scene. Whe...

A Fascinating Story. Published by University Press Audiobooks in 2015 Read by Andrew L. Barnes Duration: 6 hours, 36 minutes Unabridged In 1928 a sports promoter named Charles C. Pyle had an interesting idea: a footrace across America - from Los Angeles to New York City. This race would be run in timed stages (like the Tour de France) with pre-planned stops along the way. The winner would get $10,000 and the first two-thirds of the race would highlight Route 66. Pyle brought in legendary football player Red Grange as a celebrity promoter and made grand plans for each stop, including a travelling carnival.  199 men paid the $100 entrance fee and started the race. 55 made it to the end. Along the way they ran, walked and even crawled through searing heat, snow, rain, dust storms, sleet and more. They also faced dog attacks, surges of crowds and the African-American runners faced racist threats in some states. A surprising number of runners were struck by cars.  I wa...

THE BEST OF 2015 This is a list of the best of the best of the 73 books that  I read  or listened to in 2015. They did not have to be released in  2015 . I broke the books into several categories. The titles are hyper-linked to their reviews.  * indicates the best book in that category. Fiction Books I love Havill's Bill Gastner series - it is a shame that this series has not gotten the attention they deserve. The Battle of the Crater was a great description of a tragedy in the making and a look at leadership failure at all levels in the Union Army in the Civil War.  C.J. Box's Joe Pickett character is always a joy and these two books were excellent. But, the poorly named Insurgent (who knew that there would be a popular series with a book of the same title that would all but shove this book out of the spotlight?) was a book that made me think and made me turn the pages on my Kindle as quickly as possible. It is still the only book that I have purchase...