How to Survive the End of the World as We Known It

Yes, don't ignore this post if you think preppers are crazy hippies who are into conspiracy theories. It's a growing movement and lots of people are getting into it. This was the first book I read on the topic and while there is a lot to learn and more things I need to do in order to prepare I learned something that I should have already known after all my years of being in Girl Scouts, always prepare for the worst.

Synopsis: This book really doesn't have one. It basically is a guide on what you need to do so you are ready in any emergancy. Not just for zombies, or the end of the world, but in case a huge natural disaster comes into your area or even you loose your job and you need something to help keep you going while you are looking for a new job, being prepared for the worst could be the difference in saving your life.

Now I won't give away all the details, but just a few key elements of the book that I think are important to know and might help you figure out if you need to read this book or not. First of all Rawels points out the importance of having a retreat. This means a house or some kind of place you can go to when things get bad. It should be away from major cities and you can get their in one tank of gas. He says it's best to make this retreat your permanent home rather than a summer home, but obviously not everyone can just buy a new home int he middle of nowhere.

Another thing that stood  out to me is that you need to mentally prepare and have a plan. You need to be ready and understand that while things may be different, if you prepare for it, then you will be better off.

And lastly, that I am no where prepare for any kind of emergency.


Review: I enjoyed this book. I learned a lot and nothing was really familiar to me. With that said there were some things I just could not understand or grasp. It was technical stuff mostly like building certain things or how to change a car to propane power or something. Way over my head, but other than that it's a really good book. I recommend it to anyone who wants to see what you should be doing for being prepared for any kind of emergency.

Rating:

Any because I know you will have this song stuck in your head due to the title here is the song by R.E.M

Why no reading

Still no time for reading. I should be reading some of my civil war books for my upcoming history class but I'm dealing with switching majors... Again and just too busy to just sit and read a book. My best friend did just hand me a bunch of true crime books to read but no time

Busy Busy

I haven't been reading because work has been busy for me. I'm in the middle of Spider Bones.

One for the Money Review

I only picked up this book after seeing the trailer for the movie... which I have not seen yet. It sounded like a book I would enjoy and a series that I might get into.

Synopsis: Stephanie Plum lost her job as a lingerie buyer and in a desperate attempt to make money to prevent her apartment and car being taken away she gets a job with her cousin as a bounty hunter.

Review: I overall enjoyed this book. It's not the best crime novel I've read, but it was decent. It was fast paced and had enough excitement. What I like most about this book is that it probably made a lot of women like me wondering if they too could be a bounty hunter or a police officer.

What I think this book that made me not completely fall in love with it and not sure if I will read the rest of the series is that Stephanie is too much like me and when I read a crime novel with a female lead that is not what I really want. So it's more of a person thing and not so much that the book wasn't good.

I gave it four stars because while it was a good book it wasn't the best.

My Rating:

Wild Rose: The True Story of a Civil War Spy

I somehow got into female spies. I found an article in the History Channel magazine about a German spy sending dolls with messaged in them. From then on out whenever I had a history project come up I would see if there was something about female spies I could do it one. In the fall I am taking my last history research class and it covers the 19th century South. I knew there was female spies during the Civil War and started to look for book that would help me discover what is mentioned and what is not mentioned.

Synopsis: For sheer bravado and style, no woman in the North or South rivaled the Civil War heroine Rose O’Neale Greenhow. Fearless spy for the Confederacy, glittering Washington hostess, legendary beauty and lover, Rose Greenhow risked everything for the cause she valued more than life itself. In this superb portrait, biographer Ann Blackman tells the surprising true story of a unique woman in history. 

“I am a Southern woman, born with revolutionary blood in my veins,” Rose once declared–and that fiery spirit would plunge her into the center of power and the thick of adventure. Born into a slave-holding family, Rose moved to Washington, D.C., as a young woman and soon established herself as one of the capital’s most charming and influential socialites, an intimate of John C. Calhoun, James Buchanan, and Dolley Madison. 

She married well, bore eight children and buried five, and, at the height of the Gold Rush, accompanied her husband Robert Greenhow to San Francisco. Widowed after Robert died in a tragic accident, Rose became notorious in Washington for her daring–and numerous–love affairs.

But with the outbreak of the Civil War, everything changed. Overnight, Rose Greenhow, fashionable hostess, become Rose Greenhow, intrepid spy. As Blackman reveals, deadly accurate intelligence that Rose supplied to General Pierre G. T. Beauregard written in a fascinating code (the code duplicated in the background on the jacket of this book). Her message to Beauregard turned the tide in the first Battle of Bull Run, and was a brilliant piece of spycraft that eventually led to her arrest by Allan Pinkerton and imprisonment with her young daughter. 

Indomitable, Rose regained her freedom and, as the war reached a crisis, journeyed to Europe to plead the Confederate cause at the royal courts of England and France. 
Drawing on newly discovered diaries and a rich trove of contemporary accounts, Blackman has fashioned a thrilling, intimate narrative that reads like a novel. Wild Rose is an unforgettable rendering of an astonishing woman, a book that will stand with the finest Civil War biographies. (Taken from GoodReads)

Review: I really enjoyed this book. While it lacked any details on the spycraft of spies during the Civil War there was a little information. Either no one truly knows all the details or the author wanted the book to be about Rose herself and not so much how she was a spy. Reading through the book you get a good sense on what was taking place during this time in Washington D.C. and how hard it was for those invovled. I took away from this book that Rose ONeale Greenhow was a strong woman who never backed down from her beliefs. I think it's a book any girl or woman needs to read. It's a great book on a woman who was respected by high official men and was important to the cause. 

I gave this book 5 stars because I was written so well and it truly gave me some insight to both the Confederate side (most of my history courses seem to favor the Union) and how some women actually felt during the war. 

My Rating:

Late March Recap

So I never did a review/recap of the books I read in March for the To Be Read Pile Challenge. I only read one book and that was Enclave. I read nothing else and I am not sure if I will be able to finish anything for April either. I am still reading Wild Rose about a female Confederate Spy. It's pretty interesting.

I am a slacker

So it's almost the end of March and I have not finished a single book. I am working on a historical book called Wild Rose by Ann Blackman. It's about Rose O'Neale Greenhow who was a Confederate spy during the Civil War. It's a very interesting book and may be a source for my senior research class.

It's almost the end of the semester for me so I have tests in a lot of my classes right now and it's hard finding the time to read. Also, I want to start on fiction books, but I know if I start on one I will ignore this book I'm roughly half way through. So I think for this month I will have no completed books and while I am a little upset by that I also know that things happen.