Now, I am not advocating being a “prepper” with $4K of freeze dried food stored in the basement. But, sometimes disasters happen, and the government’s recommendation of 72 hours worth of supplies might not be enough. To learn more about practical ways to be prepared, I recently read Tony Nestor’s book on the topic. He is a survival training expert, who makes a living teaching others how to survive in the wilderness or in more urban settings. His short book on this topic is impressive. I read When The Grid Goes Down: Disaster Preparations and Survival Gear For Making Your Home Self-Reliant in a couple of evenings. Nestor does not burden his book with lots of anecdotal tales; instead he gets right to the point and stays there. He discusses the differences between surviving in the city and in the country (not much different, actually) and then takes people’s needs, such as water, food, and shelter, topic by topic, and addresses how to prepare and cope with a disaster, should one occur. There is a bounty of useful information in this book, but I found the lists especially helpful. He also mentions other resources that I intend to purchase, such as a book for times when there is no doctor. Also helpful is the resources section in the back, which lists other books and DVDs, but it also has links to websites to purchase some of the items he recommends. And, no, he does not recommend tubs of food that lasts 25 years in storage. Nestor says he doesn’t eat that way now, and would not be happy eating that way in a disaster. Instead he recommends cans and packages of dry beans and rice that can be rotated for freshness. Oh, and he does recommend a firearm and lots of ammo. But he says that trapping and fishing are more efficient ways of securing animal protein. Again, this is practical advice!
The topics addressed here would be useful for a disaster that lasts from days to weeks. If you want to learn to live off the grid permanently, go read another book.
is modern in tone, pace, and language. But it is more of a “why” novel than a “what novel” as it begins at the end, and the plot unfolds as detectives try to unravel the story of the interactions between our victim (who has 3 names before it is over, so I won’t name her here) and an individual that the main character knows as the Gardener. Our protagonist is more victim than heroine, but she is certainly brave in a multi-layered manner. The novel is well-written and sufficiently suspenseful for me to have read it in a couple of evenings.
. However, an exploration of the role of the victim is common to both. If any of you readers enjoyed The Gift Horse, and were not overly offended, then you should try The Butterfly Garden. I really, really enjoyed it. But, I am not am not outraged by villains doing really bad things. That is what makes such characters villains.
While I don’t often read romance, February is the month to do so, now isn’t it? This novel is a bit of mystery, but with plenty of romance. It is not, however, one where a major sexual encounter happens before a third of the book is over. FYI!
begins the “Mystic Cove Series,” and it is a pleasant read, if not a compelling one. Our heroine, Keelin O’Brien, has been reared in Boston, by her successful real estate agent mother, who left Ireland and Keelin’s dad behind long ago. For reasons that are a bit of a mystery to Keelin, her mother doesn’t talk about the past, especially about Ireland. Soon, the reader learns that Keelin herself is a bit of a mystery, too, because she has a power that most of us don’t have.
Visions and Revisions 