Category: Book, Movie, and Web Reviews

Letter Re: Grid Down Digital Library

HJL, Downloading YouTube on Android. Remember micro-SD cards are interchangeable and inexpensive, so get a phone with a slot and make backups (and put them around various places). Often large (128Gb+, often U3 for GoPro) capacity cards will go on sale at least once a month, so I look for them and stock up. I’ve seen these as low as $15, limit 2. Sometimes there are excess stock or closeouts on prepaid, and I didn’t have to activate them though there was a trick to bypassing that screen. Most can be rooted. I have several, so it pays to look …


A Digital Library in a Grid-Down World, by J.G.

Since you are reading this online, nothing bad has happened yet to the grid. The walk from dependency on modern culture and conveniences to preparedness is ongoing. The naïve and nihilists are doing little to prepare for what we hope never happens. The rest of us are on a continuum of awareness and readiness. Today, we take the power grid as a given. Virtually all apocalyptic scenarios involve loss of power and electricity, sooner if not later. There are plenty of articles stating the absolute need for clean water, food, shelter, and security. This is not in dispute. We all …


JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:

Reader S.T. writes in to recommend The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom by Slavomir Rawicz (The Lyons Press; 1997). It’s about seven men who escaped a Russian labor camp after WWII and walked more than a thousand miles to freedom in British India, a journey on foot through some of the most inhospitable conditions on Earth. It was made into a movie a few years ago with the title something like “The Way Home”. I highly recommend the book over the movie. o o o Reader S.B. suggested Red Sky in Mourning: A True Story …


Readers’ Recommendations of the Week:

SurvivalBlog reader DMS writes in: I only have one faith-based movie to recommend this week for good reason– it stands alone! It comes with one question, one statement, and one warning. The question: What are you doing right now?? The statement: Yes, we have lost rights. Let’s take them back the same way we lost them– one right at a time. The warning: If you lost one of my brothers or sisters who served and gave the ultimate sacrifice, the ending of the movie may be too much. (I had a tough moment but a good wife.) Okay, the movie …


Readers’ Recommendations of the Week:

Reader M.C. suggested Wanat: Combat Action in Afghanistan by the US Army Combat Studies Institute. “This really is a book loaded with information that every soldier or citizen soldier should embrace. The ‘lessons learned’ commentary is worth much more than the price of the book.” o o o Most people have seen the movie The Eagle Has Landed. But I highly recommend you actually read The book by Jack Higgins. Follow that up with the aftermath, The Eagle Has Flown. I so wish both would be remade into films. Unlike British claims, German troops did land on their soil. Luckily …


Readers’ Recommendations of the Week:

SurvivalBlog reader C.P. recommended the movie Secretariat , based on the greatest racehorse to ever live. It’s a tribute to following your instincts and doing your homework. o o o Reader DMS suggested these faith related movies. If they’re not faith related, they’re a God wink: Bonhoeffer (true story), What if… (Parents only), Moondance Alexander (true story, and Saving Sarah Cain.


Pat Cascio’s Product Review: Survival, Escape & Evasion

Back in November of 1969, during my infantry school at Ft. Lewis, WA, we were afforded a one-day Survival, Escape & Evasion training course. The entire day was spent learning how to forage food and cook it, along with learning to read the sun during the day and the stars at night, for navigation purposes. We were also taught how to escape and evade capture by enemy troops, who were played by soldiers from other military units. During our training, we were shown a map of where we were. It also showed some of the terrain we had to cover …


Readers’ Recommendations of the Week:

Recommended movies by SurvivalBlog reader DMS: Faith Like Potatoes (true story) No Greater Love Rust (and watch the extra For Father) Not Easily Broken Woodlawn (amazing true story) God’s Not Dead Mom’s Night Out (too funny) Reader E.R. suggested A Prepper’s Cookbook: 20 Years of Cooking in the Woods by Deborah Moore. It’s disaster cooking made fun.


JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:

Books: @War: The Rise of the Military-Internet Complex, by Shane Harris (A very well-researched book that describes modern cyber warfare) Movies: Interstellar The Martian Mini-Series: The Man in the High Castle (currently available free for anyone enrolled in Amazon Prime (Based on the novel of the same name, by Phillip K. Dick.) Music: Bocephus Box Set (Hank Williams, Jr.)


Letter: Advice on Establishing Retreat Group SOPs

Dear Mr Rawles: I wanted to reach out. I am now reading your novel Patriots and in it the topic of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) is addressed. Do you all have a good template example to help me get started in this arena? Thanks, – Jon B. JWR Replies:  There are no “one size fits all” SOPs. Your SOPs should definitely be tailored to your particular circumstances. Military SOPs are usually a good starting point.  (These include: immediate action drills, perimeter security (including challenge and password), patrolling, field sanitation, communications CEOI procedures, OPSEC, COMSEC, et cetera.)  I don’t want to …


JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:

Books: Stillwell and the American Experience in China 1911-45, by Barbara W. Tuchman Miracle at Belleau Wood: The Birth of the Modern U.S. Marine Corps, by Alan Axelrod DVDs: AGI Glock Armorer’s Course Killer Elite.  Warning: This is an often brutally violent film, based on a true story. (Not to be confused with the fanciful Sam Peckinpah film The Killer Elite, starring James Caan, Robert Duvall, and Bo Hopkins.) Music:  The Very Best of Steeleye Span Dire Straits: Brothers in Arms


Readers’ Recommendations of the Week:

SurvivalBlog reader D.S. stated that 85% of the movies his family watches are Christian based. Ragamuffin was great, but pre-screen for your children. He also recommended No Greater Love as another good family movie. o o o Reader K.W. notified us that The Heavy Water War is now available on Netflix. It is the story behind Hitler’s plan of Germany developing the atomic bomb during WWII and the heavy water sabotages in Rjukan, Norway. Presented from four angles: the German side, the allied, the saboteurs, and the company side. It is mixed with English and subtitled Norwegian/German. The series does …


Readers’ Recommendations of the Week:

SurvivalBlog reader T.G. writes in: My first and foremost pick is ‘Alas, Baylon‘ by Pat Frank. Written in 1959, it starts off in the sleepy little Florida town of Fort Repose, a brief family history of the main character, and soon leads up to an accidental nuclear war in the Middle East that goes world wide. The story details how the lights go out and how Fort Reposed goes from 1959 to sometime in the 1800’s as people have to relearn how to do almost everything plus deal with day to day life minus information, a hospital, functioning police, and …


Readers’ Recommendations of the Week:

Three books recommended by SurvivalBlog reader T.A. The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus by Richard Preston Demon in the Freezer: A True Story by Richard Preston Triple Cross: How bin Laden’s Master Spy Penetrated the CIA, the Green Berets, and the FBI by Peter Lance o o o SurvivalBlog reader L.P. recommended “A Boy Ten Feet Tall” by W.H. Canaway. It’s a story about a young boy who loses his parents in an air raid in Suez and sets out on his own to find his aunt, who lives in Durban. He …


JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:

Books The Prepper’s Blueprint: The Step-By-Step Guide To Help You Through Any Disaster, by Tess Pennington 100 Deadly Skills: The SEAL Operative’s Guide to Eluding Pursuers, Evading Capture, and Surviving Any Dangerous Situation, by Clint Emerson How to Stay Alive in the Woods: A Complete Guide to Food, Shelter and Self-Preservation Anywhere, by Bradford Angier Bushcraft 101: A Field Guide to the Art of Wilderness Survival, by Dave Canterbury The Stout-Hearted Seven: Orphaned on the Oregon Trail, by Neta Lohnes Frazier Light Infantry Tactics: For Small Teams, by Christopher E. Larsen