I made a decision recently to start reading more.  I’ve even set myself a really tall order of re-reading The Lord of the Rings come Christmas time.  I’ve only figured on putting it off til then so I can really sink my teeth into it!  In the meantime I’m tackling Ben Elton’s Stark. Thus far an oddly hillarious read that’s really got me hooked – I’ll tell you more later!

But to the point man!

When I was in high school I had a burning passion for all things aviation.  I even (not so secretly) harboured fantasies of flying for the RNZAF.  My uncle had a Bell Jet Ranger at the time and I was particularly enamoured with anything with a rotor (helicopters, not RX7s!).  So when I found Jack’s copy of Chickenhawk by Robert Mason, I just had to have a go.

About all I can remember about the book is that I loved it!  So when Kirsty picked up a copy at the 2009 Lion’s Club Book Sale earlier in the year I got quite excited.  Reading it again was kind of like reading it for the first time after some 15 or 16 years, and I can say I enjoyed it as much – if not more than – last time.

Mason starts his story as a young man who has always wanted to fly.  When he was a kid he used to dream of flying around like a bird.  The US Army gave him the opportunity to train and fly helicopters.  Unfortunately for hom this all happened in the 60s so predictably, the army sent him to Vietnam.

Chickenhawk chronicles his time in ‘Nam from flying grunts into “hot” landing zones to seeing fellow helicopter pilots fall to human error.  Mason describes the action so well it’s like really being there.  He also writes frequently of his inner feelings at being separated from his wife, Patience and their infant son Jack.  You can truly feel his pain as at times he’s not sure if he’ll even see them again.  He comes across as a real human with real human feelings – shock and disgust at some of things only people in battle get to see – and real human failings.  More than once we find our protagonist succumbing to carnal desires with local Vietnamese women in spite of his family.

The last chapter of the book covers his return from war, and this was perhaps more shocking than the entire rest of the book.   In his first decent contact with American civilians he’s asked by a woman at an airport if he’s returning from Vietnam.  Proudly he says yes, only to have her turn on him, scowling and calling him “Murderer”.  He goes through endless jobs which he can’t hold down because of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, takes up drinking and smoking dope and turns his back on society, disappearing into the middle of nowhere to build a log cabin.  In the close of the book he tells of his arrest smuggling drugs into America for which he does time in prison.

I think that’s what makes this book so good.  Mason is no hero.  In the beginning he’s a focussed young guy flying off to war with a true passion for what he does – real hero potential.  For the duration of the war, he’s just a guy doing his job – a job that he becomes increasingly uncomfortable with.  And there’s no happy ending.  For the last half of the book he slowly sinks into a sleepless, stressed-out wreck who is grounded from flying on more than one occasion due to all of this.  By the last page he’s a broken man, just telling the world his story.

It’s real, it’s gritty and the best thing by me… it’s an easy read.  The weird bit is that it’s just a chronicle of “stuff that happens” – there’s not really much of an ongoing story – but I just couldn’t put it down. Even if you’re not really into the whole war thing, this is a must read by me.  5 stars!!!!

You can pick it up at  Fishpond with 24 hour delivery!

I was hungover one day back in late 2000, just lying in bed watching tv when a music video caught my eye. It was called Hey Little and I was instantly mesmerised by the tune and visual impact of the video. I then went on a quest to find out who and where I could find out more about this band called Pluto. Internet searches lead me to find out that in 2001 the Auckland based band would be releasing there debut album Red Light Syndrome. So patiently I waited and saved up my $ and when the day finally came I got it, rushed home and put it on. And man the wait was worth it!.

Starting of with a beautifull accoustic lead in, Moscow Snow sets the tone for what i belive to be one of the best albums in my collection, though one I neglect to play on a regular basis. The opening track progresses picking up tempo and volume, building up to multiple climaxs, not to different to great sex, and if I was going to compare this track to anything I would have to compare it to sex!.

Next up, Bananas in the mist then She’s jive, two songs that pick up the beat and give you a happy feeling, also both of which were released as singles and made into entertaining music videos. I cant help but smile when i see the vids or hear the songs, they just give me a warm fuzzy feeling!.

But this album is not all about great sex and warm fuzzy feelings, no its all most bi-polar. I can be happy and cheerfull one moment, then dark and depressed the next. the next 3 tracks (Drag strip girls, Hey little and Buttermilk)

bring the mood down abit, with mostly accoustic guitar work and interesting lyrics. Then track 7, Stick with it, brings it back up with an electric eclectic style. Once again this track was released for radio play as a single and also had a video made for it.

Just as tracks 8,9 10 and 11 (Product, Field2Cows, Playful Partner and Noon) bring some semblance of order to the album, track 12 Cards, then slows you down with its slow, melodic pace, maily piano with accoustic and drum backing, and with some very stirring lyrics. Keeping in tune with its bi-polar nature, the 13th and final track, Candy Arse blasts you with a punk rock style song, with dj style scratchings mixed in with it. Certainly a track to end the album with a blast!.

Overall I would give Red Light Syndrome a 9.5 out of 10. It is such a pitty that Pluto disliked the album and moved away from this style for there 2nd album Pipe Line Under The Ocean. At the time of Red Light Syndrome, Pluto had been battling to overcome problems with there record label and they felt like Red Light Syndrome was not what they wanted to accomplish. They felt they got it right with Pipe Line Under The Ocean, an album that I got and found disappointing, so much so that I still havent got there 3rd album Sunken Water. I think it is such a shame that the band felt this way and left Red Light Syndrome to die a slow and lonely death. It may be hard to find now at your favourite record store, but if you do, slap down the dollars, I think it is well worth it.

Once upon a long time ago there used be a site seldomly updated by a guy who called himself Mr. Moon. That same site still exists today and it’s still seldomly update by Mr. Moon. It is however frequently updated by people he very loosely terms “friends”. And I dont mean that in the nasty way – i mean it in the “i dont talk to you all nearly as often as I should” way. Isnt it just so cool that little old site now has a life of its own? it is an organic beast, growing weekly – almost daily.

So today i come to you via a new toy. You all know how much I love my gadgets, but this one is just… well words defy me. Imagine a laptop PC quite literally 1/4 of the size of your average laptop. Imagine it is loaded with a Linux distribution that provides all of your daily needs – OpenOffice, Firefox for the web, Thunderbird for the email… and thats just the software. The hardware includes built in wireless, 3 USB2.0 ports, a VGA port for a secondary monitor, touchpad mouse, 512MB of RAM and a solid state hard drive. That means NO spinny bits to get destroyed when its (invariably) dropped from a small height. Yes it has a 4GB onboard flash memory, roughly 2.3GB used by the system, the other free for you to use. It has a built in webcam that works with the pre-installed Skype. Everything the average user needs. This is NOT a toy for a power user, but a tool for a student on a budget or a tight wad Chief Financial Officer. And all this for $500. I kid you not. ($600 if you want the windows XP version). So what is it? The ASUS EeePC. Google it ya bums, i cant be bothered giving you a link. I love it! The only thing Im not that fussed on is the funky small keyboard. cool for little digits but no good for me!! (as you can probably tell by my crap typing). Anyways… we bought it for Taylah to do her homework and stuff. on. And I’m in love. It just ROCKS. That’s all i have to say about that… except that… for the record my CFO hates it

I bought this CD for myself ages ago, really for the ‘big girls don’t cry’ song, because I saw the video and thought it was so cool.

But now I also like her song ‘mary jane shoes’ because it is about shoes, and I am a girl, and I like shoes.

My favourite shoes (wearing them right now) are my mums black pulp strappy stillettos, they make me look mean taller. Hahaha taller than mum too.

I think this CD is hot, because all my friends like it.

I give it 3.75 stars out of 5.

My new favourite CD is LINKIN PARK minutes to midnight. It is pumping, it rocks and I love to listen to it LOUD in the car.

I was pleasantly surprised with the melodic lyrics though. I had assumed all Linkin Park tracks to be, well, loud, hard, and heavy. But there is some fairly mellow easy to listen to tracks on there, ‘Leave out all the rest’ and ‘in between’ in particular. The lyrics are beautifully composed and performed.

I do admit to thrashing ‘I bleed it out’ and ‘no more sorrow’ as loud as I can while I’m driving, it gets this girl in a rocking mood thats for sure.

‘Shadow of the day’ is another slow melodic track with harmonious lyrics, with the addition of some well restrained heavy drumming. To be honest it took me by surprise, I felt it was more of a U2 sound. It’s a cool song, But I must admit to favouring the heavier stuff.

There is a well placed warning on the label, moderate impact coarse language and/or themes.

Overall I absolutely love it, it’s energy is catchy and puts me in a happy thrash it out place, definitely well worth working out to.

Bob Lee Swagger (Marc Wahlberg), one of the world’s great marksmen and the son of a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, lives in solitude out in the Rockies. He’s left the military, having been hung out to dry in a secret Ethiopian mission a few years before. When suddenly he’s recruited by a lisping colonel (Dani Glover), to help find a way that the President of the US might be assassinated in one of three cities, in the next two weeks.

Swagger does his job, but the shot is still fired, and Swagger becomes the scape goat: wounded and hunted by thousands, he goes to ground and, aided by two unlikely allies from the FBI, searches for the truth, and for those who double-crossed him.

i found this to be a very suspenseful and edge-of-your-seat sort of movie, with plenty of explosions and the like, for the guys, and a subtle amount of romance and intrigue for the ladies. although at points the plot can be slightly confusing due to the speed at which it moves along, i would thoroughly recommend this film to anyone. 9 out of 10

Shooter: Yesterday was about honor. Today is about justice.

Jack Reacher is an ex-military cop, mustered out from the Army with no real ties to anything. After being born abroad and spending most of his life travelling the world either as the son of a military man or in service himself, Jack Reacher yearns to see his more of home country. Jack Reacher is a wanderer of no fixed abode and an anti-hero. He deals out justice in the manner that he sees fit. No longer in the service, no longer playing by anybody elses rules.

On some vague memory of a long since dead guitarist, Reacher leaps off a bus in the middle of nowhere and wanders 14 miles in the rain into Margraves – a small, idyllic little town where things are not quite what they seem. Within minutes of his arrival, Reacher is arrested for murder and from there, things get more and more twisted. Action, violence, corruption, romance and mystery aplenty ensue.

Killing Floor is the kind of novel that constantly keeps you guessing as to what on earth really IS going on, and Child keeps you turning the pages with an expert ability to perfectly control the pace of the narrative.

I’ve never been much of a reader – five books in as many years was about my limit. This is the first in the series of Jack Reacher novels, and the book that REALLY got me into reading regularly. So far I’m up to book number 4 in as many MONTHS, and I just can’t get enough.

For some odd reason however, this book is in the first person while the other three are not. (However I understand that Child once again returns to the first person narrative in subsequent books.) The first person allows you to get inside the head of Jack Reacher and see that he is not the perfect hero, he has failings and this only serves to make him more human, more likeable and makes the books all the better to read. A perfect introduction to an excting, fast-paced, gripping series!

Buy now from fishpond