DWD's Reviews

Published by Random House Audio in 2018. Read by the author, Jonah Goldberg. Duration: 16 hours, 1 minute. Unabridged. Jonah Goldberg, noted political commentator and an editor at the conservative political magazine National Review , takes a long time to set up his argument that modern West culture and its economic system, as it developed under the Enlightenment, is unique and worthy of preservation. He goes on an in-depth look at the conditions that brought about the Enlightenment and makes some reasonable conclusions - certainly nothing that was earth-shaking. But, he makes them in easily understandable terms because this is not a poli-sci or an economics textbook - this is the political version on an evangelistic tract trying to sell the citizens of The West, particularly Americans, that their political and economic culture is worthy of saving, even if it is imperfect. Goldberg spends a great deal of time pointing out that the vast majority of human history has been the s

Steve Martini Originally published in 2005. Synopsis: A controversial CEO of a tech company is murdered in her own home. The motive is not clear, but her former bodyguard who is also her former lover is arrested for the crime. He claims that he was framed. He is accused of stalking her, he claims he was re-hired off of the books and was actually protecting her because she felt like she was being followed. Emiliano Ruiz's case was dropped by his original attorney, but Paul Madriani and Harry Hinds pick it up only to find that it looks like a slam-dunk case for the prosecutor. Ruiz's pistol is the murder weapon. He has no proof that he was re-hired to protect the victim and he knows everything about her security system. But, there is something about the case that convinces Madriani and Hinds that there is more here than meets the eye... My take: This is a so-so legal thriller. It's all a little too clandestine for my tastes and its conclusion was a "gotcha" en

Published in 2018 by Ted Halstead. Read by Cody Banning. Duration: 15 hours, 4 minutes. Unabridged Ted Halstead's The Second Korean War is a multi-country thriller in which North Korea tries a desperate gamble to force South Korea to submit to North Korean rule. The book starts out on an military base on the far eastern part of Russia. North Korea has found out that Russia has a small nuclear "backpack" weapon (a battlefield nuke) dating from the early days of nuclear weapons that has been lost from the inventory over the years. North Korea acquires the weapon so that they can start a two-pronged effort to force South Korea to surrender and force the United States to withdraw from South Korea without fighting. But, things don't go as smoothly as they hoped, people die and a Russian police detective starts putting things together. The question is, will he put things together fast enough? The last thing I want to do is write out a bunch of spoilers, so I won'

Published by Recorded Books in 2007. Read by George Guidall Duration: 8 hours, 42 minutes. Unabridged. Walt Longmire is the Sheriff of Absaroka County in Wyoming and he is off to Philadelphia to visit his daughter Cady. This visit comes as part of a road trip with his friend Henry Standing Bear who is presenting some photos at a museum. To add some extra fun, Walt is going to meet up with his tough-talking deputy Vic's family, since she is also from Philadelphia. Turns out they are entrenched in the police department, from top to bottom. But, before the visit really got started, Cady is pushed off of a balcony and suffers a head injury, leaving her in a coma. Walt and Henry start investigating and soon things start to get very complicated, very fast. This is the third book in this series, but the first one that I have read or listened to. Normally, I don't join series midway, but I felt confident that I could start with this one because I had seen two season of the TV s

Published in 2017 by Blackstone Audio. Read by Peter Berkrot. Duration: 11 hours, 45 minutes. Unabridged. The chief mechanic of the B-24 Liberator  Nine Yanks and a Jerk  sticking his head out of the hole blown through the cockpit by a piece of unexploded ordinance. Jimmy Stewart was in that cockpit on that flight. Just a few months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hollywood actor Jimmy Stewart was a new recruit in the U.S. Army angling for the chance to fly a bomber in combat. At the time, he was the reigning male actor in Hollywood, having recently received the Oscar for Best Actor. But, deep down, Jimmy Stewart wanted to continue the family tradition of military service. The Army tried to divert Stewart to a non-combat role, aided by some string-pulling by his movie studio. But, Stewart pulled some strings of his own and eventually found himself training to fly bombers, despite the fact that he was easily at least ten years older than all of the other trainees. Stewa

Originally Published in 2005. Published in 2016 by HMH Books for Young Readers. This book is really three stories all wrapped up in one. #1) It is the early biography of two authors and how they got started. #2) It is also the story of how Curious George, the iconic children's book character came to be. #3) And, most importantly, it is the story of how these authors and this character were almost snuffed out at the beginning of World War II because of their religion. This edition of the book is designed to be used in a classroom. Not only is is wonderfully illustrated with both photographs and original drawings reminiscent of H.A. Rey's work, it also includes assignments and discussion questions at the end of the book. I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Journey that Saved Curious George .