DWD's Reviews

Read by Dean Sluyter Duration: 10 hours, 46 minutes Published by Blackstone Audio in 2013 Sci-fi legend Ben Bova’s 1982 book Test of Fire is a look at a near-future Earth struck by a giant solar flare that literally destroys all life in Europe, Asia and Africa because that half of the planet that was facing the sun at the time. North America is partially devastated by a limited strike of nuclear missiles from Soviet Union. Central America and South America do not figure in the story. Photo by Gregory H. Revera The near future Earth has a lunar base (for mining) and a fleet of space shuttles that regularly take off and land on earth from very long runways. The lunar base survived the solar flare unscathed but faces the difficult challenge of how to provide for all of its needs with little or no support from Earth. The lunar base is led by a council and that council is led by Daniel Morgan and his scheming wife. Morgan leads an expedition to Cape Canaveral for su

Really Skimpy Published in 2011 by Vook The Beatles arriving in America in February of 1964 This tiny e-book comes in at 28 regular book pages according to Amazon. Let's face it, that is too small to really cover the history of rock and roll. The facts that are here are good and the book is written in a fairly interesting manner. I read the whole thing on my smart phone using my kindle app while waiting in line for a rental car. It's good for that sort of reading, but if you need anything comprehensive about the history of rock and roll this book is not what you need. In my opinion, it serves as little more than a general introduction with some broad concepts outlined and a few sentences about examples of each of these concepts. I would recommend skipping this book and just cruising Wikipedia and taking advantage of their hyperlinks and perusing topics that interest you about rock and roll. I rate this book 2 stars out of 5. This e-book can be found on Amazon.

Published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform in 2010. Entirely composed of a "best of" compilation of blog posts from the author's blog and tied together with quotes and thoughts from the Star Wars movies, The Force is Middling In This One is a fun bit of reading designed to be read exactly as it was written: in small doses. This book is perfectly constructed for reading while standing in line (which I did with my smart phone and my kindle app) or any other time when you just have about 5 minutes to read. The topics are all over the place, covering topics such as Star Wars, motorcycle riding on the freeway, the author's brain and its lack of focus, the construction of an addition to his house, his life in the least livable city in the United States (Modesto, CA - and yes, it was named that by a survey), Home Improvement Store employees, why gophers are literally evil and a whole lot more. Nearly every posting is interrupted by a totally different ver

First Published in 1999. Retired Catholic priest Joseph F. Girzone is most famous for his 1983 book  Joshua (which also became a movie) which features Jesus coming to a modern-day American small town and the influence he has just be being himself - no great announcements, just Jesus being Jesus. The author, Joseph F. Girzone A Portrait of Jesus builds on that same idea but it looks at what the New Testament records about the life of Jesus and how he related to everyone around him. Girzone writes movingly about how Jesus preached compassion above all and he demonstrates it again and again in this book. His description of Jesus and his emphasis on relationships over law and the descriptions of how that worked then and how it can work now were profound when I first read them 10 years ago. I re-read the book after doing a deep cleaning of the book shelves. I was considering selling it to a used book store but I decided that the book was so powerful that I would keep it on the

Published in 2012 by G.P. Putnam's Sons I've been reading a lot of "assigned" reading lately. By assigned reading I mean books I agreed to review for publishers/authors or books that I read just to shrink my dreaded 4-milk-crates-full "to be read" pile. They were mostly good books, (some were great, even) but when I was at the local purveyor of books I saw this Elvis Cole novel. I had to to read it just for me simply because it was my idea in the first place. Also, I am a big fan of the series. In Taken Elvis Cole is hired to find a missing college student. A widowed mother has received a call for a few hundred dollar ransom but she believes her daughter has ran off with "that boy" and is trying to scam her for money to go off and get married in Las Vegas. Sadly, Cole proves her wrong. The girl and "that boy" have been kidnapped by bajadores - bad guys that kidnap illegal aliens coming into the United States in order to squeeze

Starts Out Strong But Changes As The Book Goes Along Odd Jobs is the story of Kevin Davenport, a financially struggling college student who is working any job he can to pay for college. This summer he is working at Kosher World Meat Factory - it's a nasty job but it pays very well and it will only last a few weeks, right? Kevin has to struggle because his family life was shattered years ago when his little sister and his father, a prosecutor, were ran over in a hit and run accident that was never solve. His mom never really recovered from the shock and Kevin is hustling to pay for college. But, he gets a bigger shock when he finds out that one of his connections at Kosher World helped kill his father. The more he digs the more he decides he will get his revenge no matter what. *******Warning: SPOILER ALERT!******** At this point the book completely changes its tone. Rather than being a book about a scrappy lovable loser with some athletic talent and a funny personality,

Published by HighBridge Audio in 2009. Performed by the guests and cast of  Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Duration: Approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes. If you have not discovered NPR's weekly radio show  Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!   ,  then I pity you. This clever show is truly one of the funniest shows on radio or television or just about anywhere. This collection has 12 of the best visits from celebrity visits from 2001-2006. Most of these are funny or at least interesting. Then Senator Barack Obama starts off the collection with possibly the funniest visit of the bunch (and I am not a fan of Mr. Obama, but funny is funny). Tom Hanks ( Saving Private Ryan ) and Tom and Ray Magliozzi (NPR's Car Talk ) are also funny throughout their segments.  This audiobook focuses on a part of the show - the "Not my job" segment. In this segment a celebrity is asked 3 questions about a topic about which they may not have any particular expertise  and if they get 2

Performed by Emily Rankin Duration: 11 hours, 44 minutes Blackstone Audio Prolific author Orson Scott Card has published dozens of books, a handful of plays, writes multiple newspaper columns, publishes an online magazine and even had a hand in the creation of several video games over the years. Oh, and just in case you haven’t heard, the movie version of his most famous novel, Ender’s Game is going to be released in November. So, in a way, Lovelock is a bit strange for such an ultra-prolific author. It was intended to be the first novel in a trilogy when it was written in 1994 but the rest of the books have never been written. Officially, according to Card’s website, the second book in the trilogy is called Rasputin , but it has been listed as “in progress” for almost 20 years. Lovelock was co-written with Kathryn H. Kidd, an author who mainly specializes in writing religious-based articles and books. Lovelock is the name of a Capuchin monkey and this story is to

Published in March of 2013 as an e-book. The Suns of Liberty series is set in a future America that has undergone a second Great Depression. This economic crisis resulted in a takeover of the American government by a coalition of businesses. These businesses have veto power over the government and through that power have de facto control of everything. They have brought America back from the brink of chaos but at the cost of most civil liberties. They have even outlawed the American flag because it symbolizes a time when freedoms led to chaos. A mysterious armored superhero named Revolution works in Boston fighting crime and corruption. Sometimes he hacks into communication system and airs "commercials" that remind people of the way things used to be and the rights they used to have. No one knows anything about him, but he has inspired others to fight back as well. Some fight against the crime that has gone out of control in some areas, some push back against the

This is a review of the 3rd edition, released by Cumberland House in 2010. The 1st edition was released in 1994. The 2nd edition was released in 1998. When I read Civil War histories I enjoy the standard, sweeping re-telling of the tale with the battles and the politics. But, I also enjoy those little nuggets of history that make the larger story more personal - stories like the general who chastised his men for hiding from a sniper and then immediately gets hit by that sniper and falls over dead. Or, the story of how Booker T. Washington picked his last name. Or, one of my favorites, the story of the 90 day recruit who was due to leave immediately after the First Battle of Bull Run - but Colonel William Tecumseh Sherman refused to hear about it and if he tried to leave he would shoot him "like a dog." That same day Lincoln came by to review the troops, the man complained that Sherman threatened him. Lincoln interrupted and told him in a loud stage whisper, "Well, i

Published by HarperAudio in April of 2013 Read by the author Duration: 8 hours, 57 minutes Unabridged Frozen In Time is an adventure story, a mystery story, a story of perseverance and a story of honor - all wrapped up in one audiobook by Mitchell Zuckoff .  To be more exact, it is really two stories. The first story is set in World War II, the second one is set in 2012. During World War II American airplanes, men and supplies were ferried to Great Britain by flying from the United States to Canada to Greenland to Iceland and finally on to Scotland. But, Greenland proved to be consistently tough. Freak storms, horizons that seem to merge into the ice pack and thick fog are all common in one of the toughest environments in the world. To make it worse, Greenland is not just covered with ice, it is covered with moving glaciers. These glaciers make the ice rough and full of deep cuts in the ice caused by the glacier moving at different speeds. These cuts can go down hundreds of f

This is the most truthful book about teaching that I have ever read.  Originally published in 1998. D.W. St. John's A Terrible Beauty  has been rolling around for a while now. I read what must have been the original imprinting of the book back in 1998. The teacher who was the heart and soul of the 7th grade team at the inner-city middle school I taught at for 7 years found it at her local library, read it and passed it on to the rest of us to read. She liked it so much that when the local library wanted it back she reported it lost and paid for it so we could all read it (remember, this was in the days before Amazon.com was popular - heck, we just got a computer in our classrooms that year!) What struck us all about the book was the fact that it spoke so much truth about teaching - the mindless meetings, the hovering parents that question every move and every grade on every assignment, the worthless parents that don't even raise their own offspring, the kids who do nothin

To be released in August 2013 by Thomas and Mercer This is my 1,000th review on my blog. I have several good books that are already read and just waiting to be reviewed, but only one could be my 1,000th review. This is the best of that small bunch of books and it is really quite good. This is the fourth book in a series of books about married San Francisco homicide detectives Jane Candiotti and Kenny Marks. I had not read any books in the series until this one and the reader does not have to read them in order to join in. Photo by Rich Niewiroski Jr. Cadndiotti and Marks are called in to a nasty murder scene in a fast food restaurant. Six strangers are massacred in the basement storage area right after the lunch rush. They have nothing in common except for the way they died. To make everything much, much worse, one of the victims is Marks' nephew. The San Francisco Police Department starts to sort through the clues and work through the pasts of all of the victims l

I have suffered with abibliophobia for years (the Kindle App on my smart phone has allowed me to work with this problem quite well). I have successfully passed it on to my children - and I think this is important because of the following thought: And for those who wonder how I could have ever read so many books...

This e-book was published in 2011 by Indelible Ink The common theme uniting the two short stories by Australian writer Karin Cox in this kindle e-book is a caged in, trapped feeling. The first short story ("Cage Life") features a mis-matched couple, a free spirit wife and her straitlaced husband. She feels trapped in her marriage, living in a soul-less house and raising a toddler. They met in college in a drug-filled flophouse (there is way too much description of this part of the story for me) and she is afraid that she and her husband have moved too far apart, that the marriage was based on a temporary willingness to meet each other halfway. But, something heartbreaking happens (that I cannot disclose but it strikes you right in the heart) and it changes everything. I rate this story 3 stars out of 5. The second short story (The Usurper) is one of those stories that mislead the whole time until you get to the very end and they you have one of those delightful "

Published in 2013 by Regnery Publishing, Inc. Raymond Ibrahim's Crucified Again is at once alarming, shocking and tedious. The book documents attacks by Muslims on Christians, Christian churches and Christian organizations throughout the world, especially in predominately Muslim countries. Ibrahim uses newspaper articles and TV news programs that are printed and broadcast in Arabic and, thus, largely ignored by Western media as a source. He also uses regional Christian newspapers and  magazines and newspapers from organizations that document human rights abuses. He then proceeds to methodically list instance after instance of anti-Christian attacks from Nigeria, to Egypt to Indonesia. Ibrahim starts with a short overview of the history of Muslim/Christian relations in majority Muslim countries.  He lists the Koranic verses that are used to justify persecution of Christians (and all other faiths) and then demonstrates how it is done again and again and again. This is where

Published July of 2011 by Collective Inkwell If you are a fan of Stephen King's post-apocalyptic novels  The Stand or Cell you may want to check out Yesterday's Gone . Platt and Wright are teaming up to write a series of short e-book novels (Amazon estimates this book to be about 116 pages long) to tell the story of a world where almost everyone has disappeared without a trace. There seems to be no pattern - the good, the bad, the rich, the poor, men and women have disappeared. And, a similar mix has been left behind. Platt and Wright use "Episode 1" to introduce this world and the people that are left behind. Being an introductory episode, the lack of character development is understandable. I found myself less worried about the characters and much more curious about the setting - this strange world where almost everyone is gone. There are hints but no real answers (thus the impetus to move on to "Episode 2"). 6 "Episodes" make up a &q

Published by HighBridge Audio in 2009. Performed by the guests and cast of  Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Duration: 2 hours and 29 minutes. If you have not discovered NPR's weekly radio show  Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!   ,  then I pity you. This clever show is truly one of the funniest shows on radio or television or just about anywhere and this collection is promoted as a distillation of 12 of the best visits from a very funny crop of celebrity visits. They truly are all funny. Even the people who I had never heard of like Philippe Petit and Michael Pollan were funny and interesting. Other, more well known personalities (at least to me), like Carrie Fisher ( Star Wars ), Jane Curtin ( Saturday Night Live, 3rd Rock from the Sun ) , Neal Patrick Harris ( Doogie Howser, How I Met Your Mother ), and Leonard Nimoy ( Star Trek ) were as funny or funnier than I expected. This audiobook focuses on a part of the show - the "Not my job" segment. In this segment a c

Published by Brilliance Audio in September of 2012. Read by the author, Penny Marshall Duration: 8 hours, 30 minutes. Unabridged. Penny Marshall, best known as Laverne DeFazio on the TV show Laverne and Shirley , tells all (or at least a lot) in this name-dropping memoir. If you are offended by frequent use of curse words and references to drug use, this is not your book. A still from the opening credits of Laverne and Shirley Let me begin with an important point in my review: I listened to it as an audiobook that was read by Penny Marshall. This is important because I think it added immensely to the experience despite Marshall's relatively poor reading style. She mumbles, slurs words throughout and pauses at weird moments to take a breath but that is part of Penny Marshall's style. On top of that, at emotional moments, such as the death of her mother and discussing the 9/11 attacks the listener can hear the  emotion in her voice. Add to that her famed New Yor

Originally published in 1987. I stepped away from Garrison Keillor for a while. I don't know why, but I forgot about Lake Wobegon for about 15 years. But, I have returned for the occasional visit for a couple of years now and I find that I missed these stories. Having grown up Lutheran in rural Indiana I find quite a connection with these stories. Keillor melancholy yet heartwarming stories of the people in and around the fictional Minnesota town of Lake Wobegon are worth a re-visit if you have stayed away. Deft turns of the phrase like "Corinne doesn't believe in God, but there is some evidence to show that God believes in her. She has a gift to teach, a sacred gift. Fifteen years in dreary bluish-green classrooms, pacing as she talks, this solid woman carries a flame" (p. 23) make you nod your head in appreciation. Towards the end, a couple from Lake Wobegon is trying to take a trip to Hawaii. Keillor's extended discussion on why the glamour of "