A cleareyed fundamentals manual that makes the wilderness feel survivable.
Knight’s practical guide instructs readers how to stay alive when things go wrong in nature.
Technological innovations of the smartphone era have made it easier than ever to wander off the beaten path. Even so, apps like Instagram and Google Maps can sometimes give hikers and campers a false sense of security, leading the unprepared and/or unlucky into potentially dangerous situations where a change in the weather—or a failure of technology—can leave them stranded. With this guide, the author, who co-founded the Alderleaf Wilderness College, offers “a tried, true, and tested approach to each of the core priorities that must be addressed in wilderness survival situations. It is a cohesive system for taking care of the most pressing survival needs both with and without modern gear.” Applicable to natural disasters in addition to wilderness misadventures, Knight’s system covers the basics—shelter, water, fire, food—readers would need to survive temporary, unplanned crises (as opposed to planned, long-term periods outdoors). Just as important, Knight helps prepare readers psychologically to meet the unexpected and to avoid panic, set priorities, assess danger, and recognize signs of exposure, dehydration, starvation, and other serious conditions. From knowing what plants are edible to boiling water with hot rocks to constructing one’s own debris tipi (with a roof angle slope of 45 degrees), Knight gives key advice for getting through the hours and days one might have to survive before being rescued. Knight writes with a practiced economy, making even the least appealing activities feel manageable: “Bullfrogs, for example, can be found all over North America and are considered an invasive species in many areas of the country. They also happen to be a reliable source of meat.” The book comes with numerous photographs and illustrations, which are especially helpful for precise tasks, like crafting a bow drill set to start a fire. It’s a slim guide—truly no more than necessary. But that only adds to the sense that these are need-to-know skills.
A cleareyed fundamentals manual that makes the wilderness feel survivable.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2022
ISBN: 9798985691801
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Alderleaf Press
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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