Non-Fiction

The Ledge by Jim Davidson and Kevin Vaughan

 in Adventure / Book Reviews / Books by

Book cover The Ledge by Jim Davidson and Kevin Vaughan“An adventure story of friendship and survival on Mount Rainier”

Summary

“In June 1992, best friends Jim Davidson and Mike Price stood atop Washington’s Mount Rainier, celebrating what they hoped would be the first of many milestones in their lives as passionate mountaineers. Then their triumph turned tragic when a cave-in plunged them deep inside a glacial crevasse—the pitch-black, ice-walled hell of every climber’s nightmares.

An avid adventurer since youth, Davidson was a seasoned climber at the time of the Rainier ascent. But the harrowing free fall left him challenged by nature’s grandeur at its most unforgiving. Trapped on a narrow frozen shelf, deep below daylight, he desperately battled crumbling ice, snow that threatened to bury him alive, and crippling fear of the inescapable chasm below—all the while struggling to save his fatally injured friend. Finally, alone, with little equipment and rapidly dwindling hope, he confronted a fateful choice: the certainty of a slow, lonely death or the near impossibility of an agonizing climb for life. A story of heart-stopping adventure, heartfelt friendship, fleeting mortality, and implacable nature, The Ledge chronicles the elation and grief, dizzying heights and punishing depths, of a journey to hard-won wisdom.”

-From Amazon.com

Review

In all honesty, this book stressed the hell out of me. It was just things went from good to bad to worse. And I had to read this book over a few days to be able to make it. It’s not a long book at all, only about 253 pages or so and I’m used to reading that and way more in a shorter period of time, but with this book, I just couldn’t do it because of the content.

It is a true story and I would never have read this book if it hadn’t been the college wide book for next year but in all honesty, it was a really, really good book and had some fabulous lessons in it.

The main one that was said in the ending was, while the author literally fell into a trench while coming down from the mountain, life can make you fall into trenches, like a turn of your health for the worst or financial problems, and you cannot give up, even if you are left alone and it seems like you have no where else to turn to. You have to at least try because you never know, you just may come out of it alive and survive as a stronger person.

Essentially this book was just about this man who was hiking with his friend and there are trenches and if you fall into them, they are usually only about 30 feet deep so your partner can save you, but this one was way worse, about 100+ feet deep and he was dragged in along with his partner and it was about the story of how Jim was trying to get out.

I’m not a huge fan of the cold, nor confined spaces, and this mixed all of those ‘I do not likes’ together into one book and I had to take it bit by bit because of how it was written. Because it was in first person, you felt like you were with Jim during the entire experience and I just found it really quite stressful and upsetting.

But, while it is all that, it was a fabulous book because of the lessons you can learn in it. The perseverance was fantastic and it was incredible that he was able to do as well as he did.

I highly recommend this book! It’s not a hard read at all, as some non-fictions are. And it’s not boring. It’s sometimes a little monotonous with the talking about the climbing gear and such since I don’t really have any knowledge of those kinds of things, but even if you don’t know about it, it really doesn’t make that much of a difference and you can read it perfectly fine.

Please do check this book out. But I tell you now, prepare for an emotional rollercoaster.

Let me know what you think and happy reading!

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

 in Book Reviews / Books by

Summary

“Listed in the Marine Corps Professional Reading Program, The Art of War has influenced military tactics since the being written around the 6th century B.C. by Sun Tzu. The book has been credits to tactics used by General Normal Schwarzkoph and General Colin Powell in the Persian Gulf War. The Art of War has also been linked to other military leaders such as Napoleon, Vo Nguyen Giap, ho Chin Minh, and Mao Zedong.

Although written by Sun Tzu as a military reference, The Art of War is full of advice that has helped people of all backgrounds to prepare for many of life’s battles. The teachings of Sun Tzu go beyond the traditional battlefields and have been used in the boardroom, in sports, and anywhere challenges need to be faced and overcome.”

-From the back flap of the 2010 edition by P.L Publications, translated from Chinese by Lionel Giles, M.A.

Review

This book…..I’m honestly still working on processing it.

The book, my version (there are TONS of translations) was only 73 pages, but in that small amount of time, a lot of information was thrown at you and it was REALLY deep stuff.

When I started reading this book, I kind of sat there like, “Why can’t the US Military follow these rules?” But then as you progress and you see the word “chariot” and words such like that. This book really doesn’t apply to modern warfare anymore as land battles can be won from the air with planes and drones now. But its the thought process that still can be applied. As it said on the back cover, it’s good to apply to life and you most definitely can do that.

This is an older read, just because younger people won’t understand it at all. I had a hard enough time with it. You were constantly re-reading points to make sure that you actually understood what was written.

I do recommend reading this book just because of some of the points in it. None of this I would ever use because I am not a soldier, but still, the though process which is suggested in some of the points in the book are interesting and can be applied to life’s challenges.

There isn’t much else to say about it. It’s a classic, and an ‘easy’ read so if you have some spare time, go and check it out.

Let me know what you think while you’re at it ^.^

Happy reading!

P.S. Unfortunately I can’t find the cover of MY version of the book, but I love it. It’s a guy holding a Katana with a sunset behind him. All you see are his arms grasping the weapon. And with my personal love of Katanas…I just had to xD.

And Now For Something Completely Different: C3 Corvette 1968-1982: How to Build and Modify – Performance How-To Series

 in Books by

Summary

“The vast majority of Corvettes built between 1975 and 1982 are affordable and plentiful, and are ideal for high-performance builds. Learn how to transform a mundane C3 into a standout, high-performance car.”

-From Amazon.com

Review

Well now,  this book is definitely something different. I received this book as part of the Early Reviewers Program from Library Thing as I was the reader selected to review it. I love vehicles and all, but a book like this is something that I really would never read, after all it’s not exactly bed time reading. Nevertheless I gave it a shot.

And, as I should be truthful, I didn’t really read this book either (the way you don’t read a cookbook, but flip through). I mostly just flipped through it as a lot of it I don’t really understand. And I don’t have a car to work on which makes it slightly more difficult. However, if I did……..

I’m not really a Corvette girl, never have been and I don’t really know why, so I guess I wasn’t terribly motivated to read this book either, but I was asked to do a review and I will as it was, still, an interesting book. For a car manual.

First off, this book is in color and has LOTS and LOTS of photographs. This is really different from other car manuals I’ve seen. Most just have instructions or small drawings, mostly black and white. But this is in full color with step-by-step pictures which really is useful if you are looking to build and/or modify your vehicle. There are even brightly colored boxes here and there to warn you about different issues and also little tips.

There is also a lot of detailed instructions on how to do different things and explaining what different things are.

Honestly, I didn’t understand most of the book. I may love cars, but I am not a mechanic by any means and so didn’t understand how most of it worked. But if you are into cars and are looking to swap, strengthen, upgrade or do lots of others things you can do to a car engine, this is definitely the manual for you. Clear, well set out and almost the perfect DIY for Corvette owners this is for you.

I recommend that you check it out as it is really quite interesting to flip through, and if someone else knows more about vehicles and reads this book, let me know how you think it would hold up if you REALLY wanted to used it as a manual.

The company did release a few other manuals for other vehicles so check them out as well.

Thanks, and happy reading!

George Washington, Spymaster by Thomas B. Allen

 in Book Reviews / Books by
April 30: George Washington becomes the first ...

Image via Wikipedia

“How the Americans outspied the British and won The Revolutionary War.”

In school we are studying The American Revolution and our teacher assigned us a project to research an aspect of the Revolutionary War (tactics, a person, weapons, etc.) and write a 4 page paper on it. I was originally going to do Spies Techniques for Communication during the Revolutionary War but when I went to my local library and met with my lovely reference librarian, I had a change in heart. She brought out this book, which she knew instantly off the top of her head (did I mention that she is amazing at being a reference library, no?, well she is), and she found it for me. Then I went on a hunt for more books and could not find anything. So she had the heart to go onto the librarians system and gave me quite a few pages worth of information on The Revolutionary War and Espionage. So I took it all home and I started reading this book. As soon as I got about 10 pages in, I knew that I wanted to change my topic from what I originally had to George Washington, Spymaster. I originally did not think the Revolutionary War was interesting but this book changed my views. This book has wonderful illustrations so it is not full of only text and the illustrations enhance the reading experience.

This book taught me a lot about George Washington. I knew that he was the first President, and I knew that he was a well-known and a well-respected General. I also knew that he had to do with spying. But what I did not know was that he was a Spymaster. I just thought he was a spy. Not a spymaster. This book did not only teach you about Washington, but it also taught you about the Revolutionary War. So if you are struggling to understand espionage, or even if you just want to learn, this was a very good book. Exciting and interesting and I guarantee, if you pay attention, you will come away from with book with learing something.

The Middle School Survival Guide

 in Book Reviews / Books by

by Arlene Erlbach Illustrations by Helen Flook

As school time is slowly approaching and many students will be going into Middle School, I thought that this would be an appropriate book to review. I got this book while I was in 6th grade because in my school, middle school does not start until 7th grade (yes it is kind of confusing). So I got this book because I wanted to “survive” in middle school. But when I got this book I realized it had a lot more than I originally thought. Some of the topics covered throughout the book are…

Peers
The Opposite Sex
Really Serious Stuff
Puberty
A New School, A New Environment

I wanted to first talk about the sections of “The Opposite Sex” and “Puberty”. When I got this book I thought it was just about school, but I found out that it is also about growing up. The changes that happen to your body. In the section about the opposite sex they talk about crushes and parties. This was the part that was really kind of disturbing to me. In 6th grade I knew a lot of the stuff that they talked about, but some of it was new to me and was really kind of revolting. I cannot give any examples because I do not know the ages that are reading my blog and I do not want children running off to their parent and asking “What is this and how does it work?” But with that statement I think that you can probably guess what is covered. A broad topic are things that happen at parties.

Also the other section I wanted to talk about was Puberty. This book is a book for both males and females and so it talk’s about puberty for girls and boys. This was also disturbing because I really did not need to know all that information about the male. I knew what I needed to know for my age, but unfortunately I learned a little bit more. Some of it I wished I had not learned just yet.

Those are the two main thing that I wanted to talk about because everything else is practically ok. So my recommendation is that parents check the book out before it is bought. Amazon says it is ok for children 10-12 and grades 6-8, but I personally strongly disagree. This book I would put for 12-14 year old or kids going into 7th grade.

But everything that I have mentioned is all negative, do not get me wrong this is a really good book with a lot of information, it just should have been toned down a little bit. This book describes some of the ways that middle school works and how friends work and all that type of stuff. This book is mostly direction toward students who are heading or are in a public school. This does not seem to apply to private. It also talks about family issues like divorces and what might be happening to you while you are emotionally in trouble. I definitely would recommend reading the book, but only really if you are older or are supervised. That is my opinion.