REVIEW:

Posted by Anna Patterson. Writer, Journalist, Book Reviewer,   May, 2015

I am a blogger and reviewer. I was privileged to read this book as a professional reviewer on NetGalley.

I would give this book five stars and enjoyed reading it several times due to continual interest in the contents of this book and its historical subject matter seen through the personal viewpoint of a person involved in this time in history.

I am posting a book review on my own blog site, which is linked to my Goodreads site and linked to a few other blog sites of mine.

I have told friends of how interesting I found this book and suggested they might want to read it.

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This is a Book Review of the book Dustoff 7-3: Saving Lives Under Fire in Afghanistan, written by Erik Sabiston, and published by Warriors Publishing Group. This is a nonfiction book of 173 pages. This is a true War story by a combat veteran of this war.

This soldier flew many missions over war zones while trying to save the wounded soldiers in the field. During this perilous time, he was part of a crew of devoted heroes doing all they could to help those on the ground.

He tells of true events which happened in the battlefields of Afghanistan starting in the Year 2006.

This was indeed a life or death dangerous and violent mission for them all in their Medevac helicopter Blackhawk aircraft.

I enjoyed his way of telling this story so frankly and in a way which made it very real and frank about this situation. Having this personal account to read and keep as a historical link to this episode is surely a great thing to have. The illustrations were excellent also.

This glimpse through the author’s memory will forever linger with the reader as he describes survival efforts to bring wounded from the war zones. Seen clearly are the perils of flying these high risk missions while being shot at by enemy fighters.

Erik Sabiston, a soldier, aviator, and author, is from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia before becoming a rescue helicopter pilot in Afghanistan. The author tells with sensitivity of his time in this area and time known for its deadly violent conflict. He served as a soldier in the dangerous operations of this war in Afghanistan and now teaches aviation in the Army.

Dustoff 7-3 is the story of four heroes flying together in helicopter missions in the harsh mountains in Afghanistan. They are involved as medics in saving seriously wounded warriors which they do to great peril to themselves in the battle grounds of that area. The story revolves around Sabiston’s experiences in this situation as Chief Warrant Officer in a team evacuating casualties as part of the serious numbers during the fighting of that time in the place the veterans called “the Valley of the Death.”

Publication date of this book is May 19, 2015.

CELEBRATING ALMOST TWO YEARS AS KINDLE WORLD BOOK

http://www.amazon.com/The-Vampire-Diaries-Kindle-Worlds-ebook/dp/

Published October of 2013!

HOW DO YOU BEGIN A GOOD BARBECUE MEAL

I once was asked to be one of the judges of an outdoor barbecue cooking contest. Well, I love homemade barbecue, so I said okay. I still remember the wonderful barbecue recipes these contestants came up with.

I believe cooking is not only a necessity, but also can be an art. My own life has taught me that. Cooking barbecue and things like that can be something many people can enjoy, especially now that Spring is officially here.

I got to thinking about making some barbecue myself, so I got out my Crock Pot where it has been resting apparently or hiding because I was using the stove all Winter.

I cooked a small pork roast today in the Crock Pot and then took it up and put it cooled into baggies to save to make sandwiches later.

I also will make a sauce later.

I am the kind of person who likes to have more than one project going at a time, so I am Spring House Cleaning, taking the things (a type of plastic) off of my rose bush and cactus outside so that they can benefit from the Spring rains which are forecast, and of course, here I am on the Internet.

I can get real busy, so my Crock Pot does the cooking for me, but I can have bragging rights for cooking the meal.

It got me to thinking about my Hard Times Crock Pot Book which is published on Amazon in Kindle and also in Paperback.

So I went and looked it over again and was glad to see that I have explained how to cook many types of meats in that book. Cooking a tender, lean piece of meat can sure help a busy person prepare any size meal – later.

So since this still works for me, I thought I would share this Spring note from me on what I am actually doing right now, today, and also suggest something which might be of benefit to others who love meals like this.

Anna Patterson

Ian Somerhalder has debut as director in The Vampire Diaries Thursday night episode!

Director Ian Somerhalder

NO DOUBT ABOUT IT – Ian Somerhalder’s Directorial Debut was an incredible success in the March 12 televised show on CW of The Vampire Diaries.  It was an incredible show enhanced by the fact that Ian Somerhalder known for his role as the popular Damon Salvatore, was breaking away from the acting and into this new role, as director.

In this, the star breaks the ground made famous by a line of illustrious director geniuses of the past and present. It is a place where only time can tell and will tell how successful such a venture will eventually be. In this episode of The Vampire Diaries the directing sizzled with perfection and taut and exciting promise which could later bring on a dazzle to future work of Somerhalder’s direction.

He joins a history dating back at least eighty six years, many of them reflected in the history of the Academy Awards presentations to sixty-six different directors for their outstanding movie direction expertise. These awards reflect a quest for excellence in Dramatic Direction and in Comedy Direction.  At times these awards singled out one film which brought that director to the attention of the prestigious agency, but at other times, directors were honored for several films. Always the public at large in shows looks for the magic mix of Best Direction and Best Picture, to drive them to the show time and again.

Because of this, directors have found a place in history in the past for notable shows, such as “Grand Hotel” filmed in the 1930s.

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was a director known as “The Master of Suspense” for his direction of more than fifty feature films in a career which encompassed British films and then those made in Hollywood. He became famous for his talent to hone in on the horror and thriller movies including psychological thrillers. Also he maximized the audience’ attentions by pushing elements of his depiction of violence, murder, and scenes fraught with sexual and romantic elements.

With this directorial debut, Somerhalder has shown that his efforts in directing show great promise in this start of an exciting piece of his future in the arts.

Thursday night’s episode of The Vampire Diaries showed Caroline taking a walk on the wild side. Rather than feel the pent-up emotions boiling inside her since her mother’s recent death, and Stefan’s coldness, she has gone rogue, listening to nobody, caring about nothing. This leads her to a bar incident where she explains to a victim she intends to basically rip out his heart.

Stefan is trying to track her down, hoping to pull her back from this abyss, but she has cleaned out her things from her home and college room and she definitely means business. Bonnie is a very welcome reward for Elena’s worrying state, and yet Bonnie is not allowed to forget that awful place she just left. Unfortunately, she had met a woman in that isolated prison confinement in another place, with Damon finding out to his horror; it could be his mother who had died of consumption many years ago. Bonnie has some loose ends herself, and tries to call Jeremy who is away at art school, and has to leave him a message, she has returned, but he needs to give her time to sort this entire situation out.

Caroline is just bad as only these Vampires know how to be, so she callously in her provocative way explains her sudden eating frenzy as “Guys just taste better.”

She proves she can be cold and hot at the same time throughout this night of frenzied rebirth of the blood craving Vampire she is.

Stefan’s efforts to recover Caroline before she goes any deeper into this emotional roller coaster she is on makes his way to a warehouse dance party which is obviously very wild indeed. Bonnie has to fight off one man’s attention and finds she has to resort to the magic which thankfully she has fully restored. When he tries to charm her with how “hot” she is, she actually burns his hand from her body.

Damon angers Bonnie when he tries to get her to help Kai, the man who mistreated her in that other world with such pain, she gave Damon a taste of this in the only way she could reach him on how much she would not help him and Kai try to go back to the place Damon’s mother might be trapped.

This show was fast paced and yet drew one into the situations which were complicated and yet very real. Caroline finally in what had to be the worst revenge a rejected lover could pull on a man, told Stefan he had one choice, he would have to revert back to the Vampire she wanted him to be, and turn off his humanity. She was willing to have a college premed student operate on Sarah Salvatore, a girl Stefan had watched over and protected for all of Sarah’s life. Within just what appeared to be seconds, with bloody hands and a rib breaking electric saw in the student’s hands,  and a blood curdling screaming Sarah, Stefan went over to his very dark side.

It would seem that no matter what happens in these Vampire’s lives, they can open a door and an audience follows willingly, caught up in the magic of the story and the horror and fear of the wait for the next episode.

Good Job, Great Show, Congratulations to all who participated in this remarkable episode of The Vampire Diaries.

NEW BOOK OUT!

LOVED THE VAMPIRE DIARIES EPISODE

I WATCHED THE VAMPIRE DIARIES February 19 television show and this is what I saw:

Mystic Falls, the place where The Vampires Diaries takes place basically is a mysterious place, a place where the people are much more than they seem. It is known to have many supernatural elements and people who are vampires, and people who are witches, and the complexity of this place does not end there.

Thursday night’s episode was beautiful, one of the most poignant episodes of a television drama spectacular which is full of them. For the beauty of it all centered around the human event which no one, no matter how powerful they may be, can escape, and that is the death of a loved one.

Caroline, has been in agony, and yet drawn to go through the steps her mother would have wanted her to in this act of presiding over the funeral of her mother, also known as Sheriff Forbes.

The tragic event shoves participants back to their own bitter sweet memories; Caroline remembers talking to her mother about death when her mother taught her how to ride a bike without the training wheels. To Caroline, even then, she felt she could not live without her mother’s wise look at life.

Damon, asked by the sheriff to give her eulogy at her funeral, is reminded of his failure to deliver a eulogy at his own mothers who he had been supposed to do. His brother, Stefan’s disappointment in his brother still haunts Damon.

Caroline’s friends are very supportive of their suffering friend, and she awakes to find them camped out in the living room, asleep there.

In her practical way, Caroline lines them out with duties needing to be done for the service and asks Elena to go shopping with her, and the horror is, for a casket for her mother.

Meanwhile, their friend, Bonnie, is seeking escape from her other world prison, hoping to use retrieved magic to get her out of that solitary place. After 278 days, she is hopeful she will get out in this perfect time of an eclipse and using a magic tool, a dial of magic.

Jo, a physician at the college, is taken ill and finds she is throwing up. Rick is helping her make the best of this and try to overcome it to go to the funeral. Her twin, Kai, always of some selfish and totally evil motive, shows up and to their horror, he is having problems throwing up also. He tells her he believes the twin merge he did with his younger brother was not holding and this could mean he is dying, she could be dying and others of their coven would die also, since everything in their future depending on a successful merge of magic power between twins.

Reluctantly Jo merges with him, trying to give him her magic, and in turn, this could end her own. Happily he left and whispered something in her ear.

Shocked and reluctant, she told Rick, the man who loves her, and has stood by her through many of the turmoil’s of life, and he has a solution she is shocked by. He proposes to her, getting down on one knee, holding out a ring he had been saving, and she is overcome with joy.

During the day Stefan talks to his big brother, Damon, about a moment when Stefan was spending time with Caroline in a supportive way, and the event suddenly became more intense between them. They talked about this issue, and the funeral diverted any other talks except a short one between Caroline and Stefan right in front of her mother’s casket. This did not go in any way which was satisfactory for either of them.

Damon flanked by officers who had served the sheriff, did give a moving eulogy, touching the heart, and pulling all of the people there into that moment in life where nothing else is so important.

Caroline then sang to the amazement of her friends and Stefan rose forward in his seat to listen. She was a beautiful singer, and her song caught it all, the love bond she had with her mother, the tie her mother had been to normal life, and also as the vampire’s watched Caroline, even they were drawn totally into this mystery called “Life.”

At that time in the funeral chapel, Sheriff Forbes was recognized for her twelve years and four months of police service.

Bonnie's struggle had continued in her dangerous attempt to get back to her home. With a glance at a woman who suddenly showed up, Bonnie was pulled out of that place.

The first person Bonnie sees is Damon, who with joy greets her, but he is wondering why Elena hasn’t returned from checking on Caroline.

Caroline meanwhile, has decided to walk away from it all, ditch her human side, and turn off her humanity, just like she had seen other vampires do.

Suddenly she ends Elena’s efforts to talk Caroline out of this, and Elena ends up unconscious on the floor. When Stefan comes to talk to Caroline, he finds her gone, and Elena there, her friendship shoved aside as a vampire, apparently devoid of feeling, leaves. It is Caroline.

I really enjoyed this show, and its excellent mix of supernatural and human life.

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, REVISITED

IN THE VAMPIRE DIARIES Television Episode January 5, this is what I saw:

One of the most serious issues in the world, the act of suicide, was dealt with during this television show in Season 7.

Bonnie had suffered so much for an extended length of time. Cut off in a world beyond death, she was tormented by a world which daily reminded her of her life, which try as she might, she could not get back to. She had helped her friends who had come to this place escape it, but she had even sacrificed her chance at doing this to help them get out of this terrible prison.

She had even helped a very evil young man escape it. It was after all a prison for this powerful man, Kai, feared by even his own family and witches coven. Should he get out, it would mean life or death for his group, and he got out.

Because Kai got out, he began immediately a fight to the death, started in a challenge long ago between twins, now involving a second set of twins, Luke and Liv, who had become part of the strange and mysterious lives of the Vampires of Mystic Falls.

As the Vampires grieved over Bonnie, this sadness became more poignant when they were reminded of Bonnie’s birthday.

This girl had enriched their lives and brought joy to each of them, and Jeremy, Elena’s brother, had grown to love her.

Caroline, learning the depths of grief through her mother’s noncurable illness, was trying to hold onto Bonnie in some way, and looking back at their friendship. Trying in some way to believe in a future with Bonnie back with them, she recalls a childish thing Caroline did, when she buried Bonnie’s plush bear in the woods leaving a trail to it. Bonnie had never found it. Trying in any way to make amends, Caroline goes out, looks for signs of where long ago she buried her friend’s keepsake, and Stefan follows her out there.

Time and again, Stefan had rebuffed Caroline when she most needed him and felt she could count on him. Now her mother on what could be her very death bed, appeals to Stefan to look at her daughter again as someone who needs him. Her mother is wise about this, and with her pleas, managed to cut through Stefan’s heart which could be very cold.

Caroline is openly grieving, this care-free optimist does find the fact is, the thought of losing her mother is breaking Caroline’s heart.

Stefan a man who is unreadable is not untouchable, and he follows her out for the search of past happiness and past innocence. She finds Bonnie’s toy and it has been damaged. Nonetheless, the spark of hope glimmers for them both, and Bonnie takes the childish toy and cleans and mends it herself.

Stefan is drawn into her grief and he shares it and brings comfort and a shoulder to cry on.

Meanwhile, in hopes of checking on Bonnie, an unlikely witch uses his power to send them back in some way to see their lost friend. Kai uses his strength to the max and obviously suffers pain and begins to bleed with these efforts.

To everyone’s horror, Bonnie is in the act of committing suicide. Giving up on ever escaping back to her life, she does many things showing she means business. Seeing this, nonetheless the hold between the world she is in and their own is brief. Jeremy goes back alone, sees her in the final plans and literally sees her go into the garage, start the car allowing the exhaust fumes to rob the garage of air. Desperately, Jeremy in horror tries to reach her and through some force, he pushes the automatic door which opens. It is good he did that, because Bonnie was coming to her senses and fighting to live.

This show was a buffet table of delights for Vampire fans including:

Enzo’s plan of evil towards revenge against Stefan with an elaborate plan of conquest of a relative of the Salvatore’s, Sarah; also Bonnie finding the secret clue to gaining her magic back and escaping her solitary prison; the murderous Kai having a split personality type situation since bonding with his good twin, Luke, and last, but not least, proving love can prevail, Damon and Elena’s romance, rekindling in a splendid way.

ABOUT THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, LOOKING FORWARD TO EACH EPISODE