Category: Book, Movie, and Web Reviews

Book Title: Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ Author: Daniel Goleman Copyright Date: 1995 Publisher: Bantam ISBN: 978-0553383713 Audio, e-book or foreign translation available:  Audio and Kindle available Suitable for children: No.  Reads much like a college text book.  Not quite as dry, but not a book for a child. Let me open with the qualifier that this book does not match the normal criteria for the books I typically review for SurvivalBlog.  I sincerely doubt Daniel Goleman ever had this audience in mind.  However, I think many in this audience would be well served by reading …

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.  …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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. …

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 …

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 …

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 …