The Road Gets Better From Here by Adrian Scott

This is one of those rare books that I wish I could have another star for. I have read 5 star books and I have enjoyed them and they have stuck with me, but The Road Gets Better from Here has that something extra that made it appeal to so many of my interests and senses. Travel, local food, traditions, the hospitality of strangers, isolated villages and people, the natural environment, the man made environment, history, cultures - many many diverse cultures, the middle east, Siberia, Russia, other former Soviet countries, the desert, small engines - in the form of a motorbike, alone against the wilderness, ancient Persia ... for me he served it all up in spades, with a big side serve of Plov, Pelmeni and Sweet Tea to go along with.

Adrian Scott is, without a doubt, a bit of an idiot for travelling where he did alone and on a motorbike, especially when he had never ridden a motorbike before planning this trip, let alone a cross country/dirt type bike like this. He had a crash course on motorbiking on his very first 48 hours. Perhaps, if he been better trained on bikes, it would have saved him a lot of future problems.
But he is Australian, like me, and so I shall forgive him his stupidity because we can all be a bit gullible and reckless like this. We trust nothing will go wrong and when it does, well, we have our moment of kicking dirt and then use humour to get through it.

I learned plenty and had a few epiphanies, by seeing so many countries and cultures through Adrian Scott's eyes. What a fabulous book for those of us who want to read a travel adventure story without the complications of long lectures on political, philosophical, social and geological history. Okay, so there is ample history in this book, sure. It would not have appealed to me in the way that it did without the author giving some run down of history as he travelled, but it wasn't endless warbling and was just brief enough to educate you before he moved on with his adventure.
Another thing I really liked about this book was his unbiased and unprejudiced view on all the countries and cultures. He will admit when he disapproves of a country's laws and cultural laws, but he will only do this once he has seen the effects with his own eyes. He does not go into these countries with unfounded preconceptions fed to him by the media.

If you choose to read this book then take it with a grain of salt. Firstly, because there are many spelling mistakes and typos. Some quite bad ones actually, proving it was poorly proof read. And secondly, because it is not an overtly deep cerebral piece, it is (as I told a friend in my comments on this book) like sitting around a campfire and having Adrian Scott tell you his tale in a riveting and fun way before you all retire to your tents and then the next night, when you all gather again, he continues where he left off the night before. You all sit quietly, soaking in his words, visualising the faces and the food and the scenery of all the myriad countries he travelled through.

Thanks for taking me along on your ride, Adrian Scott. I got to live vicariously through you for a week.

5/5

Joker One by Donovan Campbell

For those who didn't know already, the war in Iraq and the War in Afghanistan are completely different beasts and in this book you get an honest taste of the urban warfare beast that is/was Iraq in 2004, Ramadi.

The book starts out, however, with Donovan Campbell back in the states. Training with his new platoon, learning his way as a new leader and mentor. It is here that I loved the book the most. I got to see the evolution of this intelligent, kind, honest officer and I am glad of that. It was an inspirational window to look into for anyone who respects and admires people with those unique leadership qualities.

Then the memoir takes you to the hot, violent streets of Ramadi in 2004 where Campbell took his baptism of fire straight on. He didn't always cope well, but he always coped as a good leader should, with resilience and love and reflection. When he broke, he broke in silence, in the presence of few.

I came out the other end of this book knowing I had been introduced to a very special individual.
An officer who accepted those in his platoon who were flawed. Timid kids, narcoleptic soldiers, misfits, he did not reject them, he instead nurtured their positives, turning them into soldiers that were as good at their job as any of their peers.
And as a leader of men, Campbell led with equal quantities of heart and mind and soul. He truly can see that it isn't the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog.

I know somebody who served with Donovan Campbell in Iraq and apparently, the man you see here in Joker One, is the man you see in real life. You can trust that this deep thinking and intelligent man, the man he makes himself out to be, is reality. There is no spin involved.

While I did drop a star for reasons that aren't important enough to comment on, those 4 stars are strong, verging on 5.

4/5
 

The Champion by Elizabeth Chadwick

This book had it's bland moments, but all in all, once I waded through those parts that were
bogging me down, I discovered that I had actually enjoyed it. I have quite a few E.Chadwick books and though I kept buying them once upon a time, I have a bit of a problem with her female characters. I find them lacklustre, depressing and pretty much devoid of personality. There are slight glimmers of endearing qualities or spirit, but they never persist.

It's probably just me. Everyone get's something different from each book they read, though I have to say, dull female characters seem to be a bit of a recurring pattern in Chadwick's books. And yet her male characters are so well done, that it is what kept me buying her books off the shelves.

The Champion's female character was up there with the blandest and yet the male characters were great to read about, so the balance tipped and made this book worthwhile. I gave it a pretty good star rating because I rated it only against other Chadwick novels I have so far read. A good book and worth your time, I'd say, if you are into historical fiction that is love story driven.

4/5

Two Greedy Italians Eat Italy by Antonio Carluccio & Gennaro Contaldo

Another lovely book by these two outgoing Italian cooks that is full of not only recipes, but plenty of reading as well.

It is one of two books that they have produced together and it was released in conjunction with a very enjoyable TV food travel series.

I liked it less than the other book as many of the recipes were using ingredients that I cannot access easily or would have to substitute. Many if those substitutes would change the flavour of the recipe and that defeats the point of reading a cookbook. Substituting flavours and ingredients is something I do 'after' trialing the original recipe. That is the beauty of cooking from books for me. Finding recipes. Trying them the way the author makes them and then tweaking them to ones own taste and local ingredients.

It is definitely more a cookbook for the European market than the world market.
Still, there were plenty of recipes in the book I will try. Such as the Risotto with Prawn and Courgette Flowers. Oh yes. Where have you been all my life??

4/5

Photoshop Elements 10: 100 Simplified Tips & Tricks by Rob Sheppard

It is simplified, but I think I am too simple a person to worry about using Photoshop. Obviously, any books that help you work Photoshop better are going to be a good recommendation for you. 

For me though, I have recently decided (after trialing Photoshop and Lightroom for free) that I don't want to do post production editing so much that I would require a program of the calibre of these ones. I'm just going to stick with the free editing programs and keep to the basics. Want to teach myself to be a better photographer and not rely on edits and 'layers' to enhance my images beyond recognition. If I start working with these programs I think I am going to get too carried away and lose focus on capturing good shots to begin with.
I still want to be able to clone a little, saturate, sharpen, crop, change to B&W etc.. but I can do all that with the Windows Photo Gallery on my laptop and the freeware I got with my dslr.

Not that I judge anybody who uses these programs, I'll just leave Photoshop and Lightroom to the Pros and the serious enthusiast. I am only an amateur photographer who enjoys taking photos to the best of my ability. All the hardcore editing stuff seems like too much of a time waster for someone at my level.


5/5

Wildlife Photography Workshops by Steve & Ann Toon

A very good book if you want an uncomplicated and personable education on taking wildlife shots. The basics are all outlined in an easy going manner, without being too deliberately dumbed down nor pretentiously plumped up.

A good all rounder that details: The Basics (Chapters on exposure etc), Perspective (Chapters on Lens choices), Painting with Light (chapters on using light, flash and weather in your captures for best effect), Composition (chapters on the dos and don'ts of photography), Fieldcraft (chapters on getting those shots in the field), The Subject (Chapters on how to best capture the subject or subjects), and Where Next? (a few pages on how to set yourself projects).

This book is all you need as you start out in Wildlife Photography. It does fall down a bit in that the technology has come along in leaps and bounds since 2003, when this book was published, and for that lacking element, I gave it four stars not five.
I haven't read a lot of books targeted only to Wildlife Photography at this stage, but I can recommend it confidently as it has helped me start out...proof is in the eating and this book eats well enough.

I leave you with a quote from the chapter called Where Next?

"Photographing wildlife is a continual learning process, compromising nine-tenths sheer frustration and one-tenth pure pleasure."

No truer words can be spoken about Wildlife Photography!! I have come home with 400 useless shots many a time! But sometimes I do find one or two that I really like and it is those few shots that fuel my passion.

4/5