I am reviewing the novel A Tap On The Window by Linwood Barclay which is a very good thriller which I bought from a local supermarket. I think Linwood is one of the best thriller writers currently writing and I did quite enjoy reading this book which has only just been published in Britain. The book is around 500 pages so is a decent length. The plot concerns a father whose sone jumped off a roof after taking bad recreational drugs and had been missing for some time. The father is determined to find out who is responsible for selling him the dodgy drugs. He is at a traffic lights in the rain and a young lady who knew his son is desperate for a lift and also another rather dodgy motorist has made her a bit fearful for her safety so he agrees to give her a lift. In his search to find the dubious drug dealer he agrees to buy that lady and her friend some drugs each and also he ends up taking some. The drug is what I think is called MDMA although in the book they use the proper name. Anyway both of the die as a result and he is fearful of ending up on multiple murder charges. The only solution is for him to get to the bottom of what is going on. The story is set in Toronto which is Linwood's home in Canada. Apparently he used to be a columnist for the Toronto Star. He has written quite a few thrillers and does seem quite consistent. The novel also has quite a happy ending & I would recommend it.

The book I read to research this post was Pottery On The Wheel by Steve McDonald which is a very good book which I bought from kindle. This is a how to guide to doing pottery on a potter's wheel and also things like glazing, firing in a kiln and also there are quite a few projects where you are guided step by step. The type of potter's wheel you should use is just a 1/4 horsepower one for small items, a 1/2 horsepower one for intermediate items like vases and if you are doing 4 foot vases a 1 hp or 1 1/2 horsepower wheel. When you finish you will normally glaze it and then fire it in a kiln. The kiln will usually work by using special cones that disintegrate at a set temperature and in the process activate a liver that turns off the kiln. In this process the temperature is the important thing not the length of time it is heated for. Some people make pottery that isn't fired in a kiln but none the less goes pretty hard as it dries out. You also need tools and alot of these you can make yourself if you can't find a pottery tool supplier. For example a piece of piano wire can be used to cut the clay and for shaping it on the wheel a piece of shaped segment of an old broken cd can be used. When using the wheel the clay must be kept wet and a sponge can be used to help with this. Of course water has to be added as well. I very much enjoyed this book and didn't want this book to end but as it was it was quite a short book of about 80 pages.

The book I've read to research this post was Tracing Your Ancestors by D M Field which is an excellent book which I bought from a second hand book store. In tracing your family tree it's worth checking if someone has already done a local history in your area or done a family history either in your family or a related family. It's surprising how many of these have been done and also how many exist in manuscript form and hardly anyone knows about them. It will save you loads of work. If your family is Irish you may find there was a fire at the records office in Dublin in 1922 which had various records stored more census records. You also may find your family has a coat of arms you never know. This is normally passed on via the eldest son in each generation. Another thing is family history where you read about the life in the towns and the careers your relatives worked in etc. In some ways this is better than simple family trees. Other things worth checking are wills, trade records, parish records, birth and death records and military records. This was a really enjoyable book that is only around 60 pages but is very informative.

The book I read to research this post was Strategy & Marketing A Case Approach by Kenneth Simmonds which is an excellent book which I bought from a car boot sale. I struck lucky with this book because I bought it for just 50 p at the car boot sale in question & the same chap had lots of books on business all for the same price so I did buy 4 all together. If you see this book and it is reasonably priced I would suggest buying it as it is interesting even though it was published in 1988 & a lot of the information about the business climate has probably changed since. This book teaches marketing by example in the form of a case by case approach of quite a lot of companies. There is a company that has 85 % of the filtration business sewn up and they find that in terms of performance and price they are the best. There filters last for 6 years which is better than any of their competitors although some customers resent their success and go with a competitor anyway. They also find that some of their competitors concentrate on small niches in the market where they can out perform them. Another company has a major share of the plastic bathroom market and find that the stainless steel market price wise is narrowing the gap on price. Many people like the kind of novelty bathrooms with things like unusually shaped baths which they excel at. Many people also upgrade their bathroom to include a shower or bidet which they need to focus more on. At the time this book was written copper baths were being edged out due to their excessive price. This book is around 240 pages so isn't that long but is an interesting read.

The book I read to research this post was The Remediation Of Abandoned Surface Coal Mining Sites by Alena Mudroch et al which is an excellent book which I bought from kindle. This book or rather ebook was very expensive and aimed at professionals in this field. I bought it because it looked like an interesting subject. Most surface mining is done in the former republic of East Germany and that along with an area in Poland & the Czech Republic is called the Black Triangle of Europe due to the mishandling of converting former surface coal mining back into something broadly of environmental use. In East Germany in particular huge amounts of coal called lignite have been mined so the best solution is to turn it into a lake. In parts of that country the water table has dropped by 30 metres due to the huge amount of mining. In parts they have seams 50 metres deep and subsequently industrial waste has been dumped there. Where coal is exposed to the water in these lakes there can be toxicity so they need a soil layer to cover it. Also studies have shown these lakes do best where there is a good variety of plant and animal life which have to be introduced. The water in these lakes has to be pumped in quite quickly to avoid it going toxic. Wheat has been found to be good for planting in these areas because it will grow in little soil. In Alberta, Canada where they had similiar surface coal mining and turned it into lakes they found the rainbow trout grew bigger and were healthier than in the natural lakes. They did have problems with there not being enough cover to protect them from predators but that has been resolved. This book is only around 150 pages but makes very interesting reading.

I will leave this site as is for people to enjoy but won't be updating it anymore. I was doing quite a few blogs and copying and pasting between them. Google penalizes you if you do this & gives you a lower rank in their search engine. I will only be maintaining 7 blogs which are all on different subjects. The sites are:

computing - http://scratbag.me

technology - http://scratbagroberts.com

history - http://scratbagdave.com

business - http://melissaball86.com

arts & crafts - http://claireabella29.com

health - http://daveroberts69.wordpress.com

fiction books - http://oldscratbag.com

Please give them a visit.

I am reviewing the film The Bourne Legacy which is an excellent thriller. It stars Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weiz, Edward Norton & Joan Allen. This is the 4th in this series of films which are based on books by Robert Ludlum & more lately Erich Van Lustbader. This installment is based on the book by Lustbader. The earlier films featured Matt Damon as a spy with amnesia who failed his mission & as a result faced danger from the secret service he worked for. In this film the department he worked for has been shut down & all the operatives are being murdered by their former masters. Jeremy who plays Aaron Cross has been infected intentionally with a virus and requires medication. He gets this through Weiz who plays a doctor in the same department. They face danger at every turn. This film doesn't feature Jason Bourne who was played by Matt Damon in the earlier films. It features some brilliant scenes like Cross firing a nail from a fire extinguisher like a low powered gun. It's the kind of film certainly gets the adrenaline going. There is a happy ending. Also the budget must have been huge & there are some brilliant chases.

I am reviewing the novel Black Market by James Patterson which is a very good thriller which I bought from a secondhand bookstore. The plot centres on mercenaries who work for a middle eastern terrorist organisation and intend bombing & causing mayhem to Wall Street. The idea is to damage the American economy. They're also hoping the middle eastern economies will be relatively unaffected. Of course the army, CIA and police are hot on their heels. This book was an early book by Patterson & unlike many of his books is a standalone thriller. He does appear to release 1 standalone thriller each year amid a huge workload. This book is quite gritty with little quarter shown to the terrorists. I think the part where they show the aftermath and how it affects other stock exchanges is well researched. It's worth reading.

The book I read to research this post was The Lives of John Lennon by William Goldman which is a very good book which I borrowed from a friend. This book depicts a pretty grim picture of John Lennon especially towards the end. Apparently Cilla Black & Paul MacCartney dissaprove of the book. Cilla Black's first hit single was written by the Beatles. Some of the things in the book are that he was a bit of a primadonna, used to wander around his home naked, he was quite grumpy through drug use & appeared to have anorexia. One thing I think is definitely true is he would wander around Central Park without bodyguards & people could freely go upto him. This was a bit unfortunate because as you probably know he got assasinated. I think Paul Maccartney is more gifted musically & I think his body of work is more consistent. Nevertheless John has written a lot of great songs but a lot of what he has written especially when he & Yoko Ono were doing half an album each like with the Imagine album he has written a lot of rubbish. Also despite modeling himself as a working class hero he was never really working class. He had a problem upbringing and was frequently naughty as a child which I think a lot of people identify with. I saw an interview with George Martin who was their producer. He said they were really nice lads but weren't exceptionally talented. He said they played one of their songs for him and he told them if they picked up the tempo they'd have their first No 1.

The book I read to research this post was A Stitch In Time by Betty Park which is a very good book which I bought from Bewdley Museum in Worcestershire, England. I think this book would be difficult for most people to obtain. It's about the clothing industries In Bewdley in the days of the canals when it was the 2nd biggest inland port in England. Gloucester was the biggest. Bewdley is a small market town on the River Severn & many things were sent to and from Bristol and then abroad. Bewdley had a thriving clothing industry. In the schools in those days dress making was considered a more important skill than reading and writing. If a lady was married she could make some much needed cash by being a self employed tailor. Most clothes were specially made by a tailor or dress maker or you made them yourself. This was the case until the mid 20th century. It was considered a huge shame if you had to go in the workhouse. Also if you died you had to have insurance to meet the cost of your funeral & most people paid a penny a week for cover. It was a humiliation if the parish church had to pay for it. If a funeral or wedding was coming up the tailor or dressmaker would be particularly busy making the outfits & they would need drapes for the coffin and hearse. The drapes were often rented out. With a funeral they would only have a few days to get everything ready & it would be particularly stressful for the clothesmaker. Many of these businesses were essentially one person affairs with maybe an apprentice to do the simpler jobs. They would typically work longer hours than the employees at larger businesses. In fact the only limiting factor would appear to be daylight as gas was very expensive. Also the gas lighting wasn't very bright and you had to pay a lot of money per light so this was limited. The lowliest trade was shirtmaker as these often had there prices undercut by the workhouses and schools. There weren't many of these in Bewdley.