Book Review: Ankara Fever: Journeys

Ankara Fever: Journeys (Volume 1) ©2013 Brian S. Vinson available on Amazon Kindle or print ISBN: 978-1494377496   I recently read this novel and it made me think it might be a great book for those in our community who are trying to ‘wake up’ friends and family who are simply unwilling to wake up without a swift kick to the pants.   First off, Ankara Fever: Journeys is a book based on what would happen if a major pandemic broke out.  It follows two couples on their separate journeys to the same place.  One couple is Roger and Jennifer.  …




Letter Re: The Dragon Day Movie

We just received our copy of the movie Dragon Day – a new movie that went direct to DVD.  The premise of the movie is that China comes to the USA to collect their debt, which we have defaulted on.  They take over all of our electronics and throw us back in time technologically 50 years.  Survivors find themselves fending off each other as well as the American traitors who quickly join forces with the Chinese – some in an attempt to just survive due to lack of food and water. For a small budget film it was excellent.  The …




Avalanche Lily’s Book Review: Prepper Pete Prepares

We recently received a review copy of the children’s book “Prepper Pete Prepares.” It was quite well done and very thorough in the breadth of topics covered, and had excellent illustrations. Our young’uns and I read it through once and it was so funny and packed full of information and talking points that we immediately read it again. The book is wonderfully politically incorrect, which caused lots of chuckles to erupt from all of us. I recommend getting a copy for any of your under-prepared relatives who have young children, to encourage their families to get ready. We only noticed …




T.M.’s Book Review: The Downfall of Money: Germany’s Hyperinflation and the Destruction of the Middle Class

The Downfall of Money: Germany’s Hyperinflation and the Destruction of the Middle Class, by Frederick Taylor © 2013 ISBN: 978-1-62040-236-8 Hardback; also available on Kindle. 416 pages, 25 chapters, appendix, bibliography, and index. Be assured that I am not an economist, but I do keep the family bankbook balanced. Past that and I am mostly lost in the world of high finance. I read this book in order to answer three questions: What caused the hyperinflation in post-WWI Germany? What effect did it have on ordinary citizens and how did they cope? What lessons are to be learned to better …




An Objective Critique of “American Blackout” by J.A. in New Jersey

Last night I was able to sit down and watch the National Geographic channel’s “American Blackout” show on YouTube.com (without family interruption!)   I would like to offer an unbiased critique of the show. The message of the show was very simple – to reach out to the average non-prepping American and illustrate how unprepared the general population is.  The producers of the show used very generic stereotypical characters in order to relate to the widest possible audience.  Every “type” of victim portrayed made simple but life threatening mistakes that were clearly illustrated to make a point about the importance of …




T.M.’s Book Review: The Liberation Trilogy by Rick Atkinson

This is actually three books telling one story that is pertinent to preppers. An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943 © 2002  ISBN: 0-8050-6288-2    681 pages The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 © 2007  ISBN: 0-8050-6289-0    791 pages The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 © 2013  ISBN: 978-0-8050-6290-8    877 pages All three volumes have excellent maps, indexes, bibliography, and a flawed endnote system. All three volumes are published by Henry Holt and Co. in New York City, NY All three volumes are available at your favorite bookseller …




S.A.’s Book Review: 77 Days In September

77 Days in September by Ray Gorham. (Published in 2011.) 306 Pages.     Note: Possible spoilers ahead.  On June 16, 2013, “Retired Rev”. wrote a SurvivalBlog article entitled “Prepping For Seniors” and referred to the e-book “77 Days In September.” I made a note-to-self on my iPad to read it in the future. However, in the months in between, I’ve read several self-published End Times-type print books sold on Amazon, and those turned out to be somewhat painful experiences. A piece of advice to writers: If you are not positive that you can punctuate and follow standard grammatical rules, either hire …




Letter Re: Remembering Robert W. Ford

James, You recently mentioned the death of the late Robert W. Ford, in England. I highly recommend his book Wind Between The Worlds, his account of experiences in Tibet, captivity by the communist Chinese, and his fight against brainwashing. It is an inspiring story of mental resistance which makes you wonder how well you would have fared in his position. A free PDF is available to download. Regards, – Don in Oregon




Letter Re: EBT Card Chaos Parallels “The Wayward Journey”

Hi James, I just came across the news story about some EBT cards to have apparently unlimited balances leading to the almost cleaning out of a Wal-Mart before the computer glitch was corrected. I bring this up because it is a near perfect parallel to the situation Nathan Hale Jefferson put in “The Wayward Journey” which I reviewed several months back.  He deserves a pat on the back for anticipating this. – Harry




John Hawkwood’s Book Review: A Failure of Civility

Back at the dawn of time, when I was commissioned in the Army Infantry, I reported to Fort Benning, Georgia for my officer’s basic course. As part of our processing, each lieutenant received two large boxes of books. There were many books on weapons systems; from the M16 and M1911 to the .50 caliber Browning Machine Gun. Not forgotten were mines, demolitions, and rocket and missile systems. There were also manuals for vehicles and maintenance, first aid and hygiene, and books for subjects I no longer can recall. Most interesting to me were the Field Manuals (FMs) for tactical operations. …




T.M.’s Book Review: Plague, Quarantines and Geopolitics in the Ottoman Empire

Published by Edinburgh University Press, ©Birsen Bulmu, 2012 ISBN 978 0 7486 4659 3 (Hardback) $75 to $99 on Amazon.com This book has 195 pages including comprehensive bibliography, endnotes for each chapter, and index. Today, I ‘m reviewing Plague, Quarantines and Geopolitics in the Ottoman Empire . Once you get past the price, this book has a lot of good information for any prepper in any nation, not just Turkey. The author discusses various diseases and the reactions of theologians, physicians, politicians, and business leaders. They all have a different approach to the problems over the centuries. Theologians quote holy …




Harry’s Book Review: The Wayward Journey, by Nathan Hale Jefferson

Book Title: The Wayward Journey (Volume 1) Author: Nathan Hale Jefferson Copyright Date: 2013 Publisher: Abundant Future Media ISBN: 978-0989319904 Audio, e-book or foreign translation avail? Yes–Kindle edition of The Wayward Journey Suitable for children? Teens and up. The Wayward Journey is a story in which a natural disaster is piled on top of a growing disaster of financial mismanagement. There is not much in this novel which requires significant stretching of the imagination. In this story John, Margaret and their two children are struggling to make ends meet in an America which is burdened with both high inflation and …




Letter Re: Recommendation for the Classic Book Alone in the Wilderness

James, The public domain book Alone in the Wilderness is available free online at The Open Library web site. In 1913 Joseph Knowles went into the woods buck naked. His 295-page book details his experiences. It is funny how he mentions that he “wonders if modern man could survive in such a situation.”  I had to laugh at that thought because here was a man still very close to the land and yet he wonder if he could do it. Just think how many people in the present day could cope. I’d like to believe that I could but it …




Field Gear: Identifying The All-American Makers

My Mac’s e-mail in-box is stuffed full every morning. I plow through dozens and dozens of e-mails. After a glance, most of them get a perfunctory “delete” click. In addition to the inevitable SEO Optimization. V*agara, and Nigerian scam letters, I also get a lot of grammatically-garbled e-mails that begin like this one: “Hi friend, Greeting from Ceina. Compoka,China–Headphone manufacturer. What kind of headphones and earphones are you collecting now? Hope we can do some help for you….” This constant barrage of e-mails are a sign that mainland China is gaining global dominance in manufacturing of consumer goods. One of …




Letter Re: Media Misrepresentation of Guns and Gun Laws

James, Reference the controversy about the Longmire television show. It is common on television and in movies to see 1911s carried with the hammer down and the act of cocking prior to shooting. Most folks versed in firearms recognize this as Hollywood adding some drama. The act of cocking being the lead up to a shootout. Hollywood is after all all about drama and not reality or safety.  E B  writing about the danger of carrying the hammer down on a round in the chamber is correct about the safety concerns of doing so.  However the older government models had …