The book I read to research this post was Arnheim The Battle for Survival by John Nichol et al which is an excellent book which I bought from Kindle. In 1944 the allied forces wanted to end the Second World War for once and for all. Had it worked the war would have been over by christmas. Anyway they tried to invade an area in the Holland, Belgium area and most of the fighting centred around Arnheim. So many troops had to be landed many were parachuted in. Many landed in plywood gliders and these were often shot to pieces and the men felt like sitting ducks. Many of the soldiers who parachuted landed in wells or got tangled up in trees. At any rate it was a bit of a disaster although the soldiers who fought in it fought valiantly. At the end of this battle 6,500 men from the allied forces surrendered but by then they were heroes. When D day did finally arrive they had learnt many lessons from this battle. One pilot dropped his bombs and a bullet came through the bomb bay and struck a fuel tank. The plane caught fire and the pilot flew the plane while most of his crew bailed out before it exploded. Many people who fought in it said you had to be there to believe it such was the ferocity of the conflict. Many dutch people died of starvation and after D day they weren’t liberated until the war was near enough over. Had they liberated Holland sooner many of them people could have been saved. Apparently a lot of the paratroopers used came from polish regiments. When Stalin invaded Poland which he divided with Hitler, he shipped many poles out to Siberia. They were basically worked and starved to death although many hadn’t commited any crimes. Anyway when Germany invaded Russia Stalin gave the Poles amnesty if they would fight the Nazis. He then didn’t trust them to fight alongside the Russians so he made a deal that they would fight with the British. Many fought in Iran.

The book I am reviewing in this post is Almost Dead by Lisa Jackson which is an excellent thriller which I bought from Kindle. Lisa is a very popular author in the USA but is less well known in the UK which is where I live. I went through a phase of about 2 years when I was still reading book but stopped doing blogs and I frequently went to the library. It was during this time I came across a book called Malice which was also by her. I was attracted by the book cover and it turned out to be a really good book. As a result I am a fan of Lisa Jackson. Anyway this book Almost Dead is about a lady who is in a coma and it goes over the circumstances that led to her being in that state. It’s about a wealthy family who live in San Francisco where the grandmother has a massive mansion. The granny looks after her grandson at this mansion and her daughter who was in prison has escaped. The relationship between the granny and her daughter isn’t very good hence the gran is under police guard when the daughter escapes. The police are called away by gunshots down the street and the gran is murdered and the grandson is taken. It appears to the police that the daughter is responsible but in fact it is another member of the family taking advantage of the situation. This member tries to kill a lot of the family and a succeeds a number of times. She intends blaming and murdering the daughter who escaped from prison. A lot of Jackson’s novels feature 2 detectives who investigate the crimes. I can only remember one who is Alvarez but they feature in this book. The main character in the book is Cissy who is one of the gran’s daughters and is the one in the coma. Incidently there is a happy ending.

The book I read to research this post was Corn Snakes by Lance Jepson which is an excellent  book which I bought from my local petshop. I only bought this book because I thought it would be interesting and don’t intend buying a snake although I do have a leopard gecko. Corn Snakes are found in the USA and they are relatively easy to tame. They are called corn snakes partly because they like being in the huge vats corn is stored in and where mice are plentiful which they eat and also due to the markings on their skin which resemble corn. They are nocturnal and although some people think it’s optional whether or not to have lighting. It’s probably a good idea as they can manufacture vitamin D from the light. You should have a mesh cover over the light so as protect the snake from getting burnt. You also need a heater and again the snake needs to be protected from getting burnt by this. They need quite a large vivarium as the males can grow to 4 feet in length. There is a similiar species which can be kept as a pet which is shorter. They like young mice to eat but also they will take young chicks which are still in the egg, baby rats, hoppers and mealworms. You have to be careful the food isn’t too big for them to digest although they can eat anything up to 1 1/2 times the size of their girdle. There jaws can separate allowing to swallow big things. It takes them quite a long time to digest food and if you feed too often they can become obese. You should feed every 10 days. Note pregnant and growing corn snakes need to be fed a little bit more often. If you have several corn snakes separate them before feeding them as its not unknown for 2 snakes to bite the same piece of food and one snake to swallow the other. Don’t forget their teeth grow backwards and once they bite it’s difficult to let go.

The book I am reviewing in this post is The Accident by Linwood Barclay which is an excellent thriller which I bought from Kindle. The story is primarily about the counterfeit products and how some ruthless will stop at nothing to avoid getting caught. I think there are two main themes to the story which are how easy it’s to end someones life and how counterfeit products like medicines which are unregulated can contain anything and potentially be fatal. The story opens with two middle aged ladies who are at a market in New York and are after counterfeit handbags and are basically in the wrong place at the wrong time and end up being murdered. The book then jumps two months into the future and we follow the murderer who has done them crimes. There is an electrician who used counterfeit components on a job and a house burnt down and there’s someone who dies from counterfeit heart medication. There’s a lady who drinks and drives and may have fallen asleep at the wheel causing a crash but the people close to her think she was murdered. There’s another lady who is pushed off a pier and it looks like an accident. I think if you read this book you will look at counterfeit products in a different light. I think a final good point is a lot of the profits from knocked off stuff benefits organised crime.

The book I read to research this post was Breaking into Acting for Dummies by Wallace Wang et al which is an excellent book which I bought from Kindle. If you get into a career in acting you should do it because you love acting not because you want to be rich and successful. There are many ways you can pursue acting, one of the more novel ways is you can volunteer to read stories to children at your local library. Some people think they can help their career by posing in a porno magazine but you have to remember it’s a separate career. There’s a lot of competition to be nude models and the effort spent trying to get into a porno magazine would probably be better spent developing your acting career. It would be highly unusual for someone casting something like a film or play etc to look in a magazine like playboy to cast it. It might help your career if you are already a famous actress and obviously they would come to you with the offer rather than the other way around but normally it will just lead to more photo shoots. Another thing some actors and actresses think will help their career is making porno films. The problem with this is it will force you to be excluded from a lot of work especially commercials where they won’t want a scandal. It’s only likely to lead to more porno films which if you enjoy making them that’s fine but many actor’s and actresses would rather do serious acting. Many actor’s turn their hands to other things particularly writing things like plays, screenplays and novels and often they will have another career which will often be something creative. Beware of agents who phone you looking for clients. Any that are any good will have lots of actors who send them resumes and won’t have to do that. Also an agent’s income should be a percentage he takes off when he finds you work so there shouldn’t be any upfront fees. If you need a photographer for a headshot the agent should give you a list of photographers so if he tries to make you go to one photographer he is probably getting a backhander. Also when you see a photographer you should shop around for the best deal and he shouldn’t put pressure on you to have it done there and then.

The book I read to research this post was How to Argue by Johnathan Herring which is an excellent book which I bought from Kindle. You need to be selective about when to argue and this book tells you not to argue when either you or the other person might resort to violence. If that is about to happen you need to both go somewhere and calm down. If you are in a relationship and your partner is violent to you then you need to end the relationship because research has shown even when the offender is apoligetic he is likely to repeat it. You need to ask yourself what you what you want to acheive by arguing and decide whether it is realistic. It’s no good ruining a friendship by arguing just for the sake of it. You must always stay calm when arguing, my mum who is good at arguing always says you have as good as lost an argument when you lose your temper. It’s a good idea to do a bit of research before an argument ie if you are after a raise at work find out what other workers in similiar jobs are paid. Some people repeat the same point over and over again albet with slightly different wording which is pointless. Some people resort to saying because I said so, which is also pointless.

The book I am reviewing in this post is Guilty Wives by James Patterson et al which is a very good book which I bought from Kindle. A lot of this book is a gritty prison drama but there is a kind of glamorous side which comes in the form of the key character being married to a rich man. The main character Abbie is in a loveless marriage and has two adopted children because she had two nearly full term miscarriages. She has an affair with a kind of glamorous James Bond character. She then gets mixed up with terrorists and although she’s isn’t directly involved in his murder she doesn’t cooperate with the police investigating it. As a result I think she is an accessory to his murder and is looking at 10 years behind bars. She escapes from prison via helicopter but is still tried in her absence. Interestingly the prison officers in the french prison only use their christian names and it is thought they’re made up so as to avoid retribution from inmates. It reminds me of something I heard about that prison officers come from well outside the area of the prison so that prisoners can’t get revenge on them. I haven’t checked but I think this book is probably number one on the UK fiction hardback book chart. I think it deserves to be number one although some of pattersons other books are better. This book is a stand alone thriller of which he seems to release about one a year.

The book I read to research this post was Aussie Soldier Prisoner of War by Craig Smith et al which is an excellent book which I think I downloaded for free from Kindle. Although Australia was involved in Vietnam, Iraq & Afghanistan no POW’s were taken by the enemy. Most of their soldiers who were captured were during World War 2. Many of these were when many of the asian countries capitulated in the wake of the japanese onslaught. The japanese were particularly cruel & apparently there’s evidence they intended for their POW’s to be worked to death and leave no survivors. Often they confiscated the prisoners red cross parcels or withheld their rations when they were distributed. The germans and italians treated tended to follow the geneva convention. The germans though would be much crueller to people like russian POW’s. It has to be said the allies sometimes committed war crimes although the perpetrators tended to get away with it. If you have seen the film Breaker Morant it’s about some australian soldiers who were ordered to shoot their POW’s and followed it only to be tried and executed for war crimes. A lot of australians were captured at Crete in World War 2 which along with the war in Russia was key in slowing the advance of the axis powers at a crucial time. If the germans had seized the russian oilfields advanced into India and linked up with proIraq forces the outcome could have been different. When the big push for Berlin happened it’s worth noting many germans were massacred. The japanese often forced women prisoners into the sex trade.

The book I am reviewing in this post is The Long Earth by Stephen Baxter & Terry Pratchett which is a very good book which I bought from Kindle. This book is currently number one on the hardback fiction chart in the UK. It’s quite a serious science fiction book and quite different to the humourous discworld novels we usually get from Pratchett. As you probably know Baxter writes quite serious science fiction & he is one of the UK’s top science fiction writers. Apparently he applied to be an astronaut at one time but failed the selection process. This book is about parrallel worlds where an organisation controls access both to different historical times and different parrallel worlds. It follows the adventures of Joshua and his female sidekick. In one scene someone is transported from world war one to a world with unspoilt countryside. Interestingly Hitler hasn’t won a single world war two in any of the parrallel worlds. Also groups like the muslims and christians have mass emigrated to a single parrallel and single time.

The book I read to research this post was Chained by Rebeca Mojica which is a very good book which I bought from Kindle. One of the earliest examples of chainmail was found in the grave of a celtic warrior which was armour that was 2,700 years old. There are many examples of chainmail especially in the form of armour in many countries & cultures. There are many styles, two of the most popular types of jewellery being hellenistic & byzantine. Many people buy the chainlinks and make their own jewellery. Sometimes they solder the links but often they can open them out with the aid of pliers link the chainlinks together and then close them. Sometimes this is quite tricky especially in the case of steel links because they can be quite springy. Easier metals to work with include bronze, copper and gold. Sometimes you can buy earlinks which can be attached to the jewellery to make ear rings.