DWD's Reviews

Published by the National Park Service in 1996 The format of this small book  (88 pages) is much like a small old-style National Geographic with three wide-ranging informative  essays by Larry Gara, Brenda E. Stevenson and C. Peter Ripley.  The pictures are excellent in that they are reproduced wonderfully and well-shot. A notice from 1851. Most importantly, these three essays are an excellent introduction to the topics of slavery, the slave trade (not just to the United States but also to the Caribbean and Brazil) and the contradictions of some of the Founding Fathers fighting for their personal freedom while owning other people. But, the heart of the book is the fight against slavery - both political and practical. After all, it is one thing to say you are against slavery and it quite another to help a runaway slave that comes to your door and help her move on to another safe place. The book documents the different strains of Abolitionism (Do you help fund the fight in Kan

First published in 2004. I am a serious fan of C.J. Box, having been introduced to him by a person who left a suggestion on one on my reviews on Amazon.com. Since then I have read most of his books in the order that I have found them - which is no order at all. So, this is probably my 15th or 16th book by C.J. Box but it is only now that I am getting around to #4 in the Joe Pickett series. Photo by DWD. This is a weird one. If you like to watch "news of the weird" type of stuff than you are probably familiar of the urban legend about cattle mutilations. These stories suggest that aliens are picking up cattle, performing surgeries on them and then leaving their mutilated bodies scattered across the countryside. In Trophy Hunt , farm animals and wild animals are being mutilated. Their faces and genitals are being cut away with precise cuts so Game Warden Joe Pickett knows that they are not the result of animal attacks - at least not anything he's used to. Wh

Published by Tobin H Michael in February of 2016 Read by Tom Lennon Duration: 8 hours, 33 minutes Unabridged Valley of Deception is a thriller featuring Jake Matthews, an experienced U.S. Marshal who lives and works in Iowa. The book starts out with a lot of action as Jake Matthews and his team are out to execute an arrest warrant in a small town in Iowa, accompanied by an inexperienced local deputy who is serving as the local guide. The arrest goes poorly and most of the team gets shot.  Jake takes some much-needed time off with his wife to recover emotionally in his vacation home in Iowa. It is a farmhouse where Matthews can play at farming a bit and go hunting. But, this time for rest and relaxation is not going well - Matthews is experiencing panic attacks and having a hard time sleeping at night.  Photo by DWD One day, he decides to go on a walk along his property line when he smells the all-too-familiar smell (in his line of work) of a meth lab. He crosses onto

Published in 2014 Wynne's War is a war story and a western with a bit of A Few Good Men thrown in as well. It starts out in Iraq where Army Ranger Elijah Russell is filmed rescuing a horse during a firefight and becomes a YouTube sensation. Russell and his buddy are taken out of Iraq to a remote base in Afghanistan. Russell is tasked with training horses for a special forces unit to use against Taliban fighters. They want horses because they are quiet compared to any motorized vehicle, can go places where four-wheelers can't and never need to be re-fueled so long as there is available grass. Russell grew up breaking horses and a great deal of the first third of the book is about Russell thinking about his childhood and detailing his "horse whisperer" style of breaking horses.  The charismatic leader of this special forces unit, Captain Wynne, is a mystery and so is his real goal with these horses. Russell can't quite figure him out and when he and his buddy

Audiobook edition published in November of 2015. Published by Blair Howard. Read by Tom Lennon. Duration: 7 hours, 23 minutes. Unabridged. Harry Starke is a former cop turned private detective in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He has a successful agency with several associates with different skill sets. Harry is also connected to the Chattanooga political scene through his father, a federal judge. Most importantly, Harry is connected through his connections as a former police officer. He knows a lot of cops, knows the department's habits and has a romantic relationship with an important detective.  Most important, Harry is a smart, tough detective who can put two and two together, get four and figure out why that answer is important to the rest of the problem. Plus, he can shoot and fight well. The Walnut Street Bridge in Chattanooga. Harry is out for a late night drink and he notices a beautiful young lady. Later, while strolling across the Walnut Street Bridge he sees he

Published in August of 2014 by Danny bent, Ltd. It took me a long time to read this book. I read it over the course of several months on my Kindle and on my phone's Kindle app.  The book details the trip of a teacher from the UK who rides his bike from the UK to India in an effort to raise money for charity and to teach his kids something. I really struggled with the first part of the book because the author seemed so self-absorbed and I never really understood how he was going to raise money for a charity by riding and as a fellow teacher I seriously did not get how this trip was going to do anything for his students besides do show everyone that he could do this outrageous thing.  So, I struggled through the first half of the book because I kept on coming back to the premise behind his trip and wondering about it (how is he raising this money? Is it by the kilometer? Is it a lump sum and will be donated so long as he makes a solid effort? These are the types of question