The book I read to research this post was The Turin Shroud by Ian Wilson which is a very good book which I bought from a carboot sale. This book was written in the 70′s prior to there being a C14 test done on the Turin Shroud which showed it to not be old enough to having been used to wrap Jesus’s body. Traditionally the shroud was thought to have a kind of photographic imprint of Jesus’s body after the crucification complete with authentic injuries. A long time prior to them testing it there was a television programme called QED which was about the shroud & an expert said if it turns out to be a fake there will be more questions to answer than if it’s genuine. At that time they did a test which showed the imprint had been taken from something in 3D which suggested a body. They have also proved the image isn’t blood or paint & it’s interesting that it’s unique. Nothing else exists that is anything like the Turin Shroud.

I’m going to write a little bit about its history. There is a kind of legend that there was an imprint of Jesus on the cloth that they wrapped him up in which seems to be the inspiration for making the Turin Shroud. One story is that Jesus wiped his face in the Garden of Gethsemene & left a print of his face on the cloth. Anyway approximately 150 years after his death this cloth was taken to Edessa where it disappeared & it’s thought it was hidden due to christians being persecuted & then it was forgotten. The Turin Shroud was found a long time afterwards & most people thought it was the same shroud. It came into the hands of a french noble family & the church tried to demand it without giving them any compensation & they were excommunicated for not complying. Later they negotiated a settlement with the church & they lifted the excommunication. The shroud was kept in Turin Cathedral for hundreds of years although in the Second World War it was kept in a monastery in Southern Italy for its safety. After the war it was returned to Turin & I think nowadays has its own museum & it’s publicly displayed every 25 years the last time was 2000. This is due to the fact that light makes it fade also in 1972 someone broke in to Turin Cathedral & unsuccessfully tried to set fire to the shroud.

The book I am reviewing in this post is Alone by Lisa Gardner which is one of the best thrillers I’ve ever read & which I bought from a carboot sale. Lisa apparently got her first book deal at the age of 20 & hasn’t looked back since. There are 2 lead characters in this novel, a man who is a sniper in SWAT called Bobby & Catherine the mother of a young sickly child who is in an abusive relationship. When she was 12 Catherine was abducted by a paedophile & is lucky to have been found & survived the ordeal. The culprit went to prison. Her husband & his parents are accusing her of poisoning & starving her son who it turns out has a rare disorder caused by her husbands parents being incestuous. Bobby shoots her husband dead after there is a violent situation the police are called to. Her husbands parents try to sue them both. Her for custody of the son & him for wrongfully shooting her husband. Her husbands father is an exjudge who arranges for Catherines rapist to be released from prison so he can get revenge on her. The only problem is the rapist who is pretty tough gets greedy & demands more & more money from her father in law or he will get nasty. It is a very gritty novel & the tension is handled beautifully. There is a happy ending & much of the book is about how Catherines & Bobbies destinies are entwined.

The book I am reviewing in this post is Hell’s Highway by G Daniel Cole which is an excellent autobiography which I downloaded for free from Kindle. It’s a tale of abusing drink & drugs & going back & forth to prison. I’ve never even had a caution although I did get a parking ticket which I appealed against successfully although that’s going off the subject. I must admit though any gritty books about things like prison interest me. It does end happily with him going to Narcotics Annonymous & Alcoholics Annonymous. I suppose must be reasonably with it to be able to write the book. He describes the hole or solitary confinement to give it its proper name as being very dark, boilling hot due to no heating or air conditioning, having a hole in the floor for a toilet, the sink is built into the wall & they get 2 reduced portion meals a day. You also couldn’t have visitors & a lot of the guards took your fags off you prior to going in. Something funny in the book is when he’s on about them selecting a cellmate for you he says it’s a lot like them choosing an opponent for a boxer. Apparently some of the kinder inmates used to talk to him about keeping a low profile & keeping out of trouble. I read an article on prison life in FHM magazine which advised you should act like a bit of a nutter so no one messes with you. You should also always that you have been incarcarated somewhere else before because many of the inmates enjoy winding up the newbies. An example was telling you that you had to get jam tokens off the prison officer prior to breakfast.

The book I am reviewing in this post is The Final Detail by Harlan Coben which is a very good book which I bought from a carboot sale. This novel is part of the Myron Bolitar series of novels. Bolitar is a private investigator who has set up a sports management company with his close female friend. He has started a relationship with a lady who is a CNN programme presenter or anchorwoman as they call them in America. He met her at a business function & she is very beautiful & they have gone to an island in the Carribean which is owned by a cruiseline & is a holiday resort. Meanwhile his friend who owns the sports agency because he has transferred the running of the company into her name has been accused of murder & doesn’t seem to be fighting the conviction. Some of the other members of the company fetch him by boat cruiser. It’s interesting that Bolitar has only slept with 4 women in his life & has never gone with a woman primarily for sex until now. I think he does have feelings for her though. It turns out a drug addict sportsman who has failed a drug test is signed to the sports agency & could bankrupt them & he has a drug crazed idea that Bolitar or his friend who now runs the agency will kill him. Hence he is doing whatever is necessary to get rid of them.

The book I read to research this post was Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies by Eric Corey Reed which is a very good book which I bought from Kindle. This book is about building or adding on to your house using sustainable materials & doing it in a way that minimizes the impact on the environment. This book assumes you have little knowledge on this subject & takes you through the basics. Many books on this subject assume you have quite a bit of knowledge already on this subject so this book is a bit of an exception. There is no such thing as a totally green material or totally green house. All you can do is reduce the impact you make as far as possible. Bricks are fairly green they are made from a clay that is plentiful & they don’t give off any noxious substances. One way they harm the environment is they are fired in a kiln. A popular alternative to bricks is adobe bricks which are made from mud & straw. If you live in New Mexico or Arizona there are commercial versions of this which you can have delivered. Elsewhere you might need to make your own. The frame for a typical house which is wooden uses approximately 44 trees. Often these trees are slow growing so they’re not sustainable. An alternative is to use adobe bricks for the frame. Some houses use concrete in their construction & a good idea is to use flyash a waste product from coal burning power stations which can be mixed in as part of the concrete mixture. This product is often dumped in landfill sites. Another good idea is using straw bales as part of the wall if you are building a house from scratch. If you use hay it will attract lots of pests. Straw can’t be digested by these pests & provides good soundproofing & insulation although the wall has to be very thick. If you use granite or marble in your house they are mined from deep under the ground making them less environmentally friendly. Some alternatives are sandstone, soapstone & slate.

The book I am reviewing in this post is From a Buick 8 by Stephen King which is an excellent book which I bought from a carboot sale. This is one of Stephen’s best novels & is very different to Christine which was about a possessed car which was very attached to its owner & got jealous. This book is a clapped out Buick 8 which has been kept in a shed for a long time at the State Trooper Headquarters. The lead character is a young lad whose dad was a state trooper who pulled over a truck & got run over by a Buick. His son hangs around the base doing odd jobs which helps him cope with his bereavement. He also mans the calldesk while the operator does things like go out for a smoke. Anyway he gets quite fascinated with the Buick which does strange things like have its lights on & the shed is always much colder than outside. A state trooper disappeared a long time without trace & I think it’s kind of hinted at that the car might have something to do with it. A big difference between this & Christine is this car is a wreck & there are things like loads of insects in the boot also at one stage a pink creature with tentacles appears in the boot & kills their pet dog. In the end it’s obvious the car needs to be destroyed & I won’t give away the ending but it’s a happy one.

The book I am reviewing in this post is The Leopard by Jo Nesbo which is an excellent novel which I bought from a carboot sale. This is another Harry Hole thriller & the sixth in the series. In this instalment he visits Hong Kong & runs up some gambling debts which he can’t possibly pay. He is given 36 hours to leave the country before the debt is sold to the triads. In the meantime there’s a serial killer loose in Oslo. They desparately need Harry as soon as possible. This killer with connections to Rwanda & Congo has torture implements which were used in the wars in these countries. I suppose he rather thoughtfully gives the victim an anaesthetic & inserts spikes into their throat. They drown on their own blood which is rather unpleasant. One victim is hanged from a diving board. Harry has to fly to Rwanda & makes an excursion into Congo to try & find a suspect. Luckily before long they find a witness who saw one of the women being stabbed in the throat but he wants to make a deal because he is an accessory to some of the murders. This novel is rather long but it’s a rewarding read & one of the best of the Harry Hole series. If you find this post an interesting read I have also done a post on The Devil’s Star on this site & on The Snowman at http://oldscratbag.com/

Both of them books are by Jo Nesbo.

I have done a post which is featured exclusively at http://oldscratbag.com/

The blog is a review of The Snowman by Jo Nesbo. I do have my own blog network but from time to time I will do a post exclusively to one site.

The book I am reviewing in this post is The Devil’s Star by Jo Nesbo which is an excellent novel which I purchased from a carboot sale. Nesbo is a Norwegian author & this book has been translated into English. The lead character is Harry Hole an alcoholic police inspector who has been on a placement in Sydney Australia where he solved a high profile case which involved him shooting someone. He is on a final warning presumably because of his drinking but they don’t want to lose him because he has a knack for solving cases. He is divorced with a child & offers to leave his job if he can get back with his expartner but she says the problem isn’t the job it’s him. He needs to solve 2 cases one involves a crooked policeman who is on the take & offers Harry money if he will drop the investigation, the other involves a serial killer. The serial killer leaves a star shaped diamond under the eyelid on the victim each time he does a killing. Harry notices the killings appear to lack any passion. Also the killer is trying to frame someone else who may be able to help him with the police corruption in exchange for proving his innocence. Despite doing his job Harry is constantly drunk & someone even offers him some cheap speed to try and perk him up. The story is set in Oslo & I think if they haven’t already done so looks set to become a tv series. I certainly would watch it & I am quite a big fan of Scandidramas like Wallander & The Killing.

The book I read to research this post was Bearded Dragons by Lance Jepson which is an excellent book which I bought from the local petshop. These are a medium sized lizard about 2 ft long & they are found in South East Asia & Eastern Australia. There is quite a lot in the wild & Australia banned the export of these as pets in the 60′s. There is a small amount sneaked out of the country illegally but most of the ones in captivity are ones that are descended from ones captured prior to this period. Bearded Dragons require quite a lot of care & if you are a beginner to the world of reptile care I would suggest you get a leopard gecko which are just as rewarding & are much easier to care for. There is an article on leopard geckos at

http://daveroberts69.wordpress.com/

There is also articles on blue tongued skinks & crested geckos at the above site.

Bearded Dragons have little spines on their body which make them look attractive & also if they are frightened they puff these out although these are unlikely to injure you & merely make this lizard feel a bit uncomfortable to hold. If they are got used to handling from an early age they can become very tame. In the wild they live in quite an arid environment & as a result eat quite a variety of foods. They eat quite a lot of living things like waxworms & crickets & also plants. One problem with keeping them in captivity is they like to eat certain foods at certain times of the day. They also require your house to be kept quite hot around 30 degrees centigrade & you have to lighting which is specifically for reptiles & these bulbs have to be changed every 6 months. They also need calcium supplements. They are diurnal which means they are awake during the day & sleep at night. It’s a good idea to use a timer with the lighting which must provide 12-14 hours of sunlight. If it becomes cold they will try and hibernate because after all they are cold blooded. In the deserts they live in it can drop to 5 degrees centigrade in the winter.