Building Findable Websites: Web Standards SEO and Beyond, by Aarron Walter
Filed under: book review, Non-fiction, recommendation, SEO
SEO is important. But there is more to getting traffic to your web pages than just SEO. You want people to be able to find your sites, partly via search engines. However, once there, you also want users to find the content of interest to them on your sites. To achieve this, you need to know how people 
But the alternative approach – which more or less says that content is king and the answer to your prayers – will most likely not cut it either. The reason is that you need content people can find, you need traffic from search engines, you need content that is organized well so that the right content is easily available to as many users as possible, and you need a web site that is alive – where things happen, where new content is added – so that users have a reason to return.
Walter’s approach encompasses both SEO and the more content focused approach. Thus this is not another SEO book written for marketing professionals. Building Findable Websites is a book full of practical advice and examples for people who build websites aiming to reach their target audience. Chapters introduce best practices and fresh perspectives on how to accomplish the goals I outlined above in the first paragraph of this review.
The book discusses Web standards, accessibility, and technologies like Ajax, APIs, Flash, and microformats, focusing on the larger ideas behind these technologies. Aarron’s book shows you how a website built semantically using XHTML, CSS and javascript can make your web site findable for your users and for the search engines. . It emphasizes building attractive content first, then removing any roadblocks that would prevent search engines from finding it.
Building Findable Websites is an interesting blend of high-level strategy and low-level techie tools and techniques. It is a book that lays out a sound philosophy, provides tools consistent with that philosophy, and show how to use them. So it’s a useful book. It is also a very well-written book. Building Findable Websites is, to my mind, a very worthwhile read for anybody concerned with web site traffic!
Horatio Hornblower on DVD
Filed under: bestseller, C. S. Forester, DVD, historical fiction, Horatio Hornblower, Main character
Captain Horatio Hornblower (DVD, 1951)
Starring: Gregory Peck, Virginia Mayo Director: Raoul Walsh
Captain Horatio Hornblower is a solid, 
Set during the Napoleonic era, the movie kicks off by steering British captain Hornblower (Gregory Peck) into the middle of a nimble cat-and-mouse game with anti-Spanish rebels in the New World–only to find that in the months since he set sail from Old Blighty, national alliances have changed, causing a reversal in his original mission. The action later shifts to Europe, and throughout there is a love story involving a noblewoman, Lady Barbara Wellesley (Virginia Mayo), who takes unexpected lodging aboard Hornblower’s ship (she later becomes Hornblower’s wife).
These are great novels, and this is a great film. Gregory Peck does a stellar job as Captain Hornblower, and Barbara Mayo puts in a fine performance as Lady Barbara. At the time there were some complaints that both leads were Americans, but the film justified the casting choices both in the eyes of the critics and at the box office. A must for Hornblower fans!
Horatio Hornblower: Collector’s Edition
Starring: Ioan Gruffudd Director: Andrew Grieve
Based on the novels by C.S. Forester, A&E’s Horatio 
Joining the British Royal Navy at the outset of the Napoleonic Wars, the enterprising Horatio Hornblower rises quickly from raw recruit to seasoned sailor, charting a course from the West Indies to the coast of Africa in the name of the Crown. Along the way he encounters roiling sea battles, cannon thunder, mutiny, plague and love, but always proves himself equal to the task. Gorgeously filmed and richly produced, A&E’s Emmy®-winning adaptations of C.S. Forester’s classic novels star Ioan Gruffudd (Fantastic Four, Black Hawk Down) and a stellar supporting cast.
The HORATIO HORNBLOWER COLLECTOR’S EDITION contains all eight feature-length Hornblower films (with many a bonus material below deck): The Duel, The Fire Ships, The Duchess and the Devil, The Wrong War, The Mutiny, Retribution, Loyalty, Duty.
Nothing was spared in making these films and they’re worth watching for the visuals alone. As well, the story lines are enthralling, the characters fully developed, and the performances powerful and good all around. This is a series that will keep anyone engaged; from small children to grandparents.
Each film (or “episode”) runs about an hour and a half, and each can stand independent of the others.
Three Bonus Programs (England’s Royal Warships, Sail 2000: Aboard the Eagle, and The Making of Horatio Hornblower) give an exclusive look at English ships from the past to the present, with fascinating descriptions and documentary footage on how these amazing machines are manned and run, as well as the incredible feats they’re capable of.
For anybody interested in nautical and/or historical fiction, this is simply an extremely entertaining and wonderfully produced series and a good buy. Run and get it! What more an I say? This set of DVD’s is the finest presentation of naval adventure I have ever seen.
Nimitz Class, by Patrick Robinson
Filed under: Arnold Morgan, book review, Main character, military fiction, naval fiction, Patrick Robinson, Thriller
Nimitz Class was Patrick Robinson’s first thriller and a very successful debut. It is also first in a series of political thrillers about 
In Nimitz Class, the carrier USS Thomas Jefferson, manned by a complement of 6000 crew members, patrols the waters of the Indian Ocean. Then suddenly her blip simply disappears from the radar screens of the other warships in her battle group. The ensuing investigation by the Director of the NSA, Admiral Arnold Morgan, and nuclear expert Lieutenant Commander Bill Baldridge, uncovers a complex plot that has been executed by a foreign submarine with a brilliant commander.
Baldridge and Morgan are gradually able to pin down the submarine used to perform the terrible deed. Searching from Scotland to Russia to Turkey to the South Pacific, they also manage to identify the commander of the sub – Benjamin Adnam, an Israeli citizen. But finding out whom, how and why is only half the job. The second part of the job is to locate the submarine and to permanently stop it. That turns out to be by far the most difficult task for Baldridge and Morgan.
Nimitz Class is a great suspense thriller. It is apparently not 100% correct as far as technology and US Navy operation is concerned, but as a thriller it works very well. It is written in a clear and compelling style, creates an aura of tension and surprise, is intelligently told and is very suspenseful. I also have to admit that I really love the character of Admiral Arnold Morgan, one of the saltier characters in modern thriller series. Overall, Nimitz Class is one of Patrick Robinson’s best thrillers.
“The New Frederick Forsyth.” — Guardian
“One of the crown princes of the beach-read thriller” — Stephen Coonts
Top 10 suspense books ever?
Filed under: bestseller, book review, crime book, International bestseller, recommendation
It is hard to say exactly which books are the best in any given category or genre. With books, as with many other things, the beauty is in the eye (or the mind) of the beholder. However, the books below are generally regarded as top suspense books, they are all very famous and written by well known, world class authors. They are all wonderful. They are my candidates for the top ten suspense books ever.
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1. | Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier (1938). The heroine, who remains nameless, lives in Europe with her husband,Maxim de Winter, traveling from hotel to hotel. She has memories of a beautiful home called Manderley, which has been destroyed by fire. The story begins with her memories of how she and Maxim first met, in Monte Carlo, years before. | Amazon US Amazon UK
(links to order the books) |
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2. | Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris (1988). This is the second novel by Thomas Harris to feature the sociopathic psychiatrist and cannibal Dr. Hannibal Lecter. In the novel, Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee, is sent to see the imprisoned Lecter in order to ask his expert advice on catching a serial killer given the name Buffalo Bill, who is abducting women and skinning them. The book has been filmed. | Amazon US Amazon UK |
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3. | Red Dragon, by Thomas Harris (1993). This is the first book about Hannibal Lecter. “Red Dragon” is a wonderfully intense psychological thriller, with plenty of obscene violence and “typical” Thomas Harris plot twists. The story of the ex-FBI agent stalking the “Tooth Fairy” or “Red Dragon” is extremely interesting and detailed, right down to forensic and crime scene evidence. This book, too, has been filmed. | Amazon USAmazon UK |
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4. | Where Are the Children? by Mary Higgins Clark (1975) This book is very fascinating. The plot is about a woman named Nancy whose children were kidnapped and murdered on her birthday. Everyone pointed their fingers at Nancy, but she left the courtroom on a technicality.Seven years later, Nancy is remarried and has two more children. However, one morning Nancy goes outside where her children were supposed to be playing and finds them gone.. A must read! | Amazon USAmazon UK |
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5. | Laura, by Vera Caspary (Femmes Fatales: Women Write Pulp) (1942, filmed 1944). Laura Hunt was the ideal modern woman: beautiful, elegant, highly ambitious, and utterly mysterious. No man could resist her charms. As a tough cop probes the mystery of Laura’s death, he becomes obsessed with her strange power. Soon he realizes he’s been seduced by a dead woman. | Amazon USAmazon UK |
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6. | Beast in View, by Margareth Millar (1945). A chain of events starting with a crank call from an old school chum sets the lonely, aloof, financially comfortable Miss Helen Clarvoe on a path as predictable only as madness. Lured from her rooms in a second-rate residential Hollywood hotel, she finds herself stranded in the more perilous terrain of extortion, pornography, vengeance, and ultimately murder. |
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7. | A Judgement in Stone, by Ruth Rendell (1977). This novel is famous in the world of crime fiction for its opening line: “Eunice Parchman killed the Coverdale family because she could not read or write“. It has been acclaimed as a keen social examination of the differences between British classes in the 1970s, as well being remarkable in its levels of suspense, despite the reader knowing from the first line what is going to happen. | Amazon USAmazon UK |
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8. | Rosemary’s Baby, by Ira Levin (1967). The book centers on Rosemary Woodhouse, a young pregnant woman, who begins to suspect her elderly neighbors are not the kindly souls they appear to be. Gradually she discovers they are the leaders of a coven of witches. Her husband, a struggling actor, allowed the devil to impregnate her in exchange for a successful career, but she is unable to convince anyone to believe her.A movie based on the novel was filmed by Roman Polanski. Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes starred in the movie. |
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9. | The Big Clock, by Kenneth Fearing (New York Review Books Classics)(1946) . George Stroud is a hard-drinking, tough-talking writer for a New York media conglomerate. One day, before heading home to his wife, Stroud has a drink with Pauline, the girlfriend of his boss. Things happen. The next day Stroud escorts Pauline home. The day after that, Pauline is found murdered in her apartment.This novel was the basis for the feature films The Big Clock (1948) and No Way Out (1987). | Amazon USAmazon UK |
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10. | Brighton Rock, Graham Greene (Penguin Classic Deluxe Edition)(1938). Although this is an underworld thriller, the book is also a very powerful exploration of the nature of sin and the basis of morality (Pinkie and Rose, two of the main characters, are Roman Catholics, as was Greene, and their beliefs are contrasted with Ida’s strong but non-religious moral sensibility).This book was filmed in 1947. | Amazon USAmazon UK |
The Whale Road, by Robert Low
Filed under: book review, historical fiction, Robert Low
The Whale Road is the first volume in a series of historical fiction novels by Robert Low entitled The Oathsworn. Low is a 
The adventure begins in A.D. 965, when 15-year-old Orm Ruriksson—aka Orm the Bear Slayer—joins the Oathsworn. They are a band of raiders, sailing a Viking ship called the Fjord Elk, which includes his father, Rurik, and is led by the ruthless Einar the Black. After hearing a tale about a mountain of silver that once belonged to Attila the Hun, the band sets out to find it, accompanied by a madwoman who claims to know the treasure’s location. The young Orm must improve his skills and become a real warrior quickly is he is to survive.
The Oathsworn, like other Vikings, fight hard, drink hard, and always defend their own. But it quickly turns out that they are not alone in seeking the treasure. Their foremost competitor is Bluetooth, the King of the Danes and the Norwegians, who wants the treasure for himself.
This is also a time of changing loyalties for the Vikings – the old Norse Gods are on their way out and the followers of the mysterious “White Christ” are gaining power across Europe. With the religious dimension added, the rivalries among bands of raiders are now stronger than ever.
The action in The Whale Road takes place all over Europe, from Norway to Scotland through the Baltic and on to Istanbul. And Robert Low mixes history, archeology andmythology into this fast-moving adventure tale. The weakness of the book, to my mind, is that the characters are a little flat, and perhaps also that it is a little too slow at times. Apart from that, it is very good — the author is very knowledgeable and has developed a good plot and is a good writer, and the book has lots of exciting fighting scenes. It is a debut book that holds promise for the forthcoming books in the series. The Whale Road is a very interesting historical fiction book, full of action and adventure.
Praise for The Whale Road:
“A company of warriors, desperate battles, an enthralling read.”
—Bernard Cornwell“A stirring Viking series of blockbuster battles and religious intrigue.”
—Publishing News“Action-packed and evocative.”
—Herald (Glasgow)
, amazon UK, and amazon CAN
. Link to more historical fiction about the Vikings.To Glory We Steer, by Alexander Kent
Filed under: Alexander Kent, book review, historical fiction, Main character, naval fiction, Richard Bolitho
This is a truly magnificent novel of the sea, set in the West Indies during the last years of the American
The time is January 1782, and British Captain Richard Bolitho is ordered to take the frigate Phalarope to the Caribbean. His is a difficult command. A tyrannical previous captain has driven the crew to the edge of mutiny, and as Bolitho sails for the West Indies his own crew is as much a threat to him as is the enemy. As well, a very skilfully handled American Privateer almost brings Bolitho’s career to a premature end. And the identity of its captain is such as to rub salt in the wound. It is a rough start for the hero, showing promise for the series.
Bolitho does what he is best at – he battles back with intelligence, courage, indomitability and his own brand of humane leadership, and thus forges his crew and ship into a hardened weapon that comes victoriously through the decisive Battle of the Saintes, the last of the war, where the hard-pressed royal squadrons are fighting for their lives against the combined fleets of France and Spain and the upstart American privateers.
Bolitho is no ordinary man. His efforts to give the ship back her pride sets him apart from his contemporaries. As the little frigate sails under the blazing sun and fights her inner battles as well as faces the bloody broadsides of the enemy, Bolitho spares neither himself nor his men. An excellent start for the series, well plotted and brilliantly executed by Alexander Kent.
Read more about Alexander Kent and the Richard Bolitho series!
Praise:
“…follow the wake of Hornblower into 18th-century seas, where a crew of shanghaied valiants kicks the stuffing out of all comers… a salty testament to the mystique and the brutality of the square-rigger.” — The New York Times
“…guarantees interest and suspense that sweeps the reader from one page to the next…. To the final intense moment of the English Victory over the French in a naval engagement unparalleled in vividness and description.” — Saturday Evening Post
The Forgotten Legion, by Ben Kane
Filed under: Ben Kane, book review, historical fiction, military fiction, recommendation
The Forgotten Legion is the debut book of Ben Kane. It is, as the name indicates, a historical fiction book set in the age of the Roman Empire, during the
The tale is about two gladiators, a soothsayer and a prostitute that all seek freedom and revenge. They are all common people, far distanced from the doings of the nobility and with much more modest and simple goals. While Julius Caesar, Pompey and Crassus struggle for control of Rome, Romulus and Fabiola, the illegitimate children of a slave raped by a nobleman, run afoul of their master and are sold off. Romulus is sold to a gladiator school and Fabiola to the city’s most fancy brothel.
Romulus is trained by Brennus, a fearsome huge Gaulian gladiator whose family was slaughtered by the Roman army. And, meanwhile, across the Forum, Fabiola, soon a favored courtesan of the social elite, vows to save her brother from certain death and to destroy the man who fathered her.
Then, after a fatal accident outside the brothel, Romulus and Brennus flee the city, joining up with Tarquinius, an Etruscan warrior who can glimpse the future. They enlist in Crassus’ army as they prepare to invade the Parthian Empire. As we know, Crassus failed miserably, and thus a legion of Roman soldiers was lost. The rest of the book is mostly their story.
The Forgotten Legion tells a great tale, and the descriptions of the battles, be they gladiatorial or army battles, are extremely well described. And the scenes of the life of the gladiators, in the brothel, and in the military, including the battles Crassus’ Roman legions fought against the Parthians, seem plausible and are very interesting.
The Forgotten Legion is a very good historical novel with several good twists and a unique and interesting perspective. Kane clearly knows the history of the period pretty well, and his story is rich in historical detail. The characterizations are not quite as good, but more than passable. His book, which reminds me a lot of Conn Iggulden in writing style, is a very welcome addition to the literature about this era.
The Dogs of War, by Frederick Forsyth
Filed under: book review, Frederick Forsyth, Thriller
A few days ago I happened upon this classic thriller by Frederich Forsyth, originially published in 1974. It is a great book, very exciting and suspenseful. The plot in The Dogs of War is centered on a tycoon that discovers a mountain of 
In The Dogs of War, Forsyth clearly material of particular relevance at the time of writing. There were strong rumors at the time, and some evidence too, that with the right contacts and enough money, mercenaries specialized in coups d’etat could be hired to topple governments. Indeed, some rumors even implicated mr. Forsyth in such a plot! It is still not clear, I think, whether he was or not.
Regardless, The Dogs of War is a high quality thriller that still is very well worth reading. It is a book that shows why Frederich Forsyth made such a name for himself as a thriller writer. As you will see if you read the book, Forsyth was simply excellent when he was at his best. The Dogs of War is a must for any thriller-loving reader!
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