DWD's Reviews

  If you like the Mission Impossible movies, you'll like The Demeter Code Normally, I don't review two books at the same time. But, the author of this series sent me both books together, explaining that they are closely tied. From what I have read in other reviews, Unsavory Delicacies (really, it is a 30 page collection of short stories) served as sort of a bridge between books 1 and 3.Personally, I think you should just jump into book three, The Demeter Code . I felt no better informed about what was going on at the beginning of Book 3 than I would have if hadn't read 2. So, if you just jump into book three be prepared for a little confusion, much like at the beginning of the first Mission Impossible movie. In fact, this book reminded me quite a bit of that series due its fast-pace, dramatic action scenes and the emphasis on working as a team and trusting the team over everything else. The real action starts out with an American operation in Europe going bad, res

    If you are not a parent, you will probably not get much out of this book Published in 2011. Familyhood is Paul Reiser's follow-up to 1994's Couplehood ,   and 1997's Babyhood . Reiser is best-known for his television show Mad About You. If you have children you will certainly understand the big gap between the publication of Babyhood and Familyhood - life with children consumes your time. And, Paul is more than just happy about that fact, he is thrilled with it.  Paul Reiser. Photo by  Thomas Atilla Lewis When he wrote this book he his two sons were ten and fifteen years old. I just read it and my two daughters are nine and fifteen years old. So much of this book rang true to me, especially his discussion on page 24 about how hard it is to just sit down and have time to talk with his wife. He writes, "This may seem to be a mighty meager aspiration - to simply talk to the person with whom you have committed to share your life - but I assure you it i

Published in October of 2014 by Simon and Schuster Read by the author, Gillian Anderson Duration: 9 hours, 34 minutes Unabridged A Vision of Fire is a mix of political thriller with sci-fi and a heavy dose of the occult thrown in as well. The book starts out with top-level negotiations taking place at the United Nations between India and Pakistan over the disputed region of Kashmir. Both countries are nuclear powers and both countries are sending troops to the border. An Indian ambassador is trusted by both sides and he is trying to broker a peace between them before a nuclear war starts. But, after dropping off his daughter Maanik at her school mysterious assassins make an unsuccessful attempt on his life. He reassures his daughter that he is fine and proceeds to the negotiating table. But, his daughter starts to have some sort of break down and starts clawing at her arms.  She is rushed home and heavily sedated because she is hurting herself. The translator for the ambas

Published in 2015 Michael Putzel has written a sort of unit history of C Troop 2/17th Cavalry 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam, also known as the Condors. The tales of combat in Vietnam and Laos are exceedingly well-told, riveting and harrowing. They tell of bravery, loyalty and loss and gave me a picture of a part of the war that I really knew very little about before. But, as good as those stories are, the real strength of the story is the story about what comes after the war. The title, The Price They Paid , is more than just story of who was injured and who died in the war. Certainly, they paid the highest price. But, the men who were injured, the men who lost their friends, even the men who went through unscathed - those men who survived to go home also paid a price and that is what I found most compelling. The book focuses on Jim Newman, a  man who started as a private in the army, worked his way to becoming an officer. In Vietnam he led his men in the Air Cavalry (

Published in 2015 by HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books in May of 2015. Multicast performance Duration: 2 hours, 20 minutes Unabridged In a lot of ways the first story in this 30 story collection typifies the entire collection. It is called "Grizzly Encounters" and is an almost 6 minute long recounting of three different encounters with Grizzly Bears. We were on a long family trip and you could almost sense the family settling in for what was sure to be an interesting story. But, after we had listened to each of them sort of peter out to a "that's it?" moment I stopped the CD and asked if I was the only one that was disappointed in that story. Everyone, even the nine year old, thought the story was a disappointment. So, on to the next story - a story about bats in a mine that I remember most for telling me this was the sound of the bats that they had been hunting (and me thinking that this would sound great in the awesome speakers of the rental S

Published by Random House in 2009 Read by Titus Welliver Duration: 5 hours, 7 minutes Unabridged In the third book in this series, Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch do a lot, but at the same time I felt like this book went nowhere and made a lot of noise doing it. In short, Cole and Hitch begin the story looking for Cole's ex-girlfriend Allie French. You have to have read the first two books to even begin to wonder why Cole wants to find this woman again. They find her in the worst brothel in the worst part of town and rescue her and a fight ensues. They all leave town and eventually find a town that needs two deputies and they take the jobs. In the town there are multiple saloons, including one led by a former army officer who was cashiered from the service because he led his men on an attack on an Indian village and killed old people, women and children but no warriors.  There is also a church in town with a curious brand of Christianity led by a megalomaniac who believ

Published in October of 2014 by Random House Audio Read by the author, Jim Gaffigan Duration: 7 hours, 17 minutes Unabridged My wife and two kids and I listened to Food: A Love Story as we drove on our family trip this summer. We are fans of Jim Gaffigan (I really appreciate the fact that our children can listen and he rarely uses an inappropriate word, let alone vulgar commentary or topics.) The book is obviously about food and Jim rarely deviates from it. He is not a "foodie". He is not driving out of his way to get something new. He is not traveling with the intent to try exotic twists on old flavors. Nope, he is an every man talking about regular every day food - burgers, fries, hot dogs, ice cream, cupcakes, pancakes, etc. He gets his tips on where to go by tweeting to his followers that he is in a certain city and where should he go. He rarely gets a bad recommendation. He includes an overview of the country with regional specialties, including a long and hil

Published by Marvel Press and Blackstone Audio on April 10 of 2015. Read by Tom Taylorson Duration: 1 hour, 34 minutes. Unabridged. This is my third audiobook of a junior novelization of a movie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  They adhere closely to the movies, have all been well-read, easy to listen to and, on the whole, quite enjoyable.  But, this one is troubling because it only covers half of the movie. Literally, this audiobook is about half of the length of the other audiobooks as well. If you have seen the movie, it only goes to the fight scene in the ship that is being harvested for scrap metal and it alludes to the Iron Man/Hulk fight scene. That's it.  Ultron Up to that point, it's an enjoyable audiobook. Reader Tom Taylorson does a very good job with the different voices of the Avengers, especially Thor. He also does an especially good job with the voice of Ultron - sometimes he sounds exactly like James Spader who voices him in the movie. The pro

Published in 2015 by Blackstone Audio Read by Jim Meskimen Duration: 2 hours, 52 minutes Unabridged Marvel Press has released a series of junior novelizations of their Avenger and Avenger-related movies. The term "Phase One" in the title means that this is a pre-Avengers book that serves to introduce an Avenger. The publisher recommends them for ages 8-12 but my wife and I listened along with the kids in the car and we enjoyed it as well - my wife was really getting into it. I was the only one in the car that had actually seen the The Incredible Hulk  movie. This is a faithful re-telling of the movie. Unlike some novelizations, this one does not really expand past what the movie reviewer would have seen in the movie. No new secrets revealed or anything. The book starts with Bruce Banner already having been exposed to gamma radiation and having already changed into the Incredible Hulk. In fact, the real plot gets going five years after his exposure. Banner is on

Published in 2015 by Blackstone Audio Read by Tom Taylorson Duration: 2 hours, 47 minutes Unabridged Marvel Press has released a series of junior novelizations of their Avenger and Avenger-related movies. The term "Phase One" in the title means that this is a pre-Avengers book that serves to introduce an Avenger. The publisher recommends them for ages 8-12 but my wife and I listened along with the kids in the car and we enjoyed it as well. The book follows the movie very closely, detailing how Steve Rogers tried to join the army multiple times during World War II but was always refused because he was too small and too sickly. Finally, he is noticed by a team of scientists and given the opportunity he has always wanted - he can join the army.  But, there's a catch.  He will have to be part of a group of men who are competing to see who can qualify to be part of an experiment to create a "Super Soldier" based on research already being done by a se

Published by Random House Audio in 2008 Read by Titus Welliver Duration: 4 hours, 40 minutes Unabridged At the end of Appaloosa, the first book in this series, Hitch and Cole have parted ways. Hitch ends up in the town of Resolution, a mining/lumbering town with some small unsuccessful ranches/farms scattered around. Hitch is hired by the owner of a local hotel/saloon to keep the peace inside the saloon. Soon enough, Cole shows up. He is on the outs with his girlfriend again. She has issues - she just has to throw herself at the most powerful man in the room and Cole had finally had enough of it and killed a man she was with. For Cole, this is devastating. He has always followed the law, even if it is arbitrary law that he has written himself. Killing this man broke the law and Cole is now a man who cannot follow his own code. So, Cole just hangs out with Hitch and ponders the meaning of laws and rules and the Social Contract for half of the book. In the meantime, Hitch is

        Watching a Tragedy Unfold Published by Thomas Dunne Books in 2011 During the long, hot, bloody summer of 1864 the Union Army of the Potomac and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia found themselves in a long series of battles. General Ulysses S. Grant changed the situation on the front by changing the strategy of the Army of the Potomac and the way it dealt with the Army of Northern Virginia. Rather than fighting a battle, withdrawing from one another, regrouping and then seeking out the enemy again Grant just kept his army in constant contact with Lee. His plan was simple - he knew that the Union forces had a lot more soldiers and a near limitless supply of ammunition and food, at least when compared to Lee's army. The math was simple - Grant could afford to lose more of everything so long as he was depleting Lee at the same time.  Eventually, this settled down into a siege around Richmond and its suburb, Petersburg. Petersburg was a train hub and a vital link

Published in 2008. This collection of short stories (and one letter and one rambling, but enjoyable,  speech) focuses on war and the folly of war. Many of the stories deal with World War II and prisoners of war, a theme echoed in Slaughterhouse-Five.  The almost 40 foot tall mural of Vonnegut in Indianapolis.  The book begins with an entertaining introduction by Mark Vonnegut, Kurt's son followed by an astonishingly flippant letter from Kurt to his family telling them that he had been a prisoner of war since the Battle of the Bulge but now he was liberated and headed back to Indiana. The letter is actually reproduced as a picture so you can see it how he typed it on the stationary that he typed it. The letter is followed by the last speech he ever wrote, appropriately delivered in his hometown of Indianapolis by his son after Kurt Vonnegut's death. The short stories are up and down, as all short stories collections are. But, Vonnegut's gift for creating interes

A western for grown-ups. It's not about the guns, horses or bullets. It's about friendship, sex and, ultimately, love. Published by Random House in 2005 Read by Titus Welliver Duration: 4 hours, 57 minutes Unabridged There are four main characters in Appaloosa : Marshal Virgil Cole, Deputy Everett Hitch, Bragg (a rancher/hotel owner) and Mrs. French, a pathetic woman that leeches onto powerful men out of some deep seeded need that we never quite have explained. Suffice it to say, Mrs. French is a survivor because she uses sex to endear herself to the most powerful man in her immediate area.  Robert B. Parker loves to explore the sometimes complicated psychology of men and women and the way they express friendship and love, both platonic and amorous. His books are full of people (mostly women, but not always) that claim to be in love but really they are psychologically needy and act out sexually in strange, disruptive ways.  There are four main characters in this st