Guns Books

Admiral Lord Nelson, the most successful naval commander of all time, died on board his flagship HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Arguably the world's most famous ship, HMS Victory was never decommissioned by the Royal Navy and is now the world's longest serving warship.

Writing this review as someone who, primarily, conducts research into ships but also as one who builds model ships, this book is ideally suited for either purpose. Beginning with an explanation of "First Rate" ships and a list of all those which held that rating, author John McKay takes the reader briefly through a career summary of HMS Victory before moving on to her design and construction. From here on he leaves no stone unturned as he describes each and every facet of the ship - right down to how many tons of salt meat or biscuits she would carry.

Everything from her various repairs and refurbishments to the more specific aspects of her steering gear, ground tackle, pumps, boats, sheathing, accommodation, masts, rigging, yards, sails - and so the list goes on, is fully explained in excellent detail.

The equally excellent photography is only eclipsed by the ultra-high standard of technical drawings which cover every aspect of the ship.

One final point; This excellent series of books include a scale drawing of the vessel to which the book refers on the reverse side of the dust jacket. These are sometimes overlooked.

Altogether a "First Rate" book.

NM

Pharmacist and health care advocate Dawn Hooley has documented a wildly fascinating book about her unique experience enduring viscious moments during Hurricane Katrina's assault on New Orleans. In the book, Dawn describes moments when the police gave their guns to stranded tourists and how the group knew that this was "no ordinary hurricane". She describes events that helped stranded patients in New Orleans obtain their medications from a local pharmacy, and volunteering for one of the local hospitals after asking four hospitals. In truly an "outsider" fashion, Dawn Hooley paints a new face on Katrina in a first-hand account.

John Nettleton signed up in the army at the age of only eighteen in January 1915, shortly after getting out of school. His story is representative of the civilian soldier of the period. He began his army career as a member of the Artists Rifles, a battalion composed mostly of intellectual men such as him, which was destined to produce a number of commissioned officers in the future. He missed the battle of Loos and ultimately the Somme behind the lines in preparation for his forthcoming commission. He talks of the various schemes he and his fellow soldiers would concoct in order to avoid burdensome military duties, these tales take on a light hearted tone and are quite enjoyable to read as Mr. Nettleton was a gifted story teller. During this time he was acquainted with G.E. Cates who would go on to be awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross in the authors' regiment. He trained with the Royal Naval Division to become an officer, though he speaks little of this period, as it is recounted at the end of the book in the form of a rough diary that he kept during his service with them. He was then commissioned a subaltern in the 2nd Battalion Rifle Brigade, and this is what is covered in the substantial portion of the narrative. His first encounter with the horrors of war is when he happened upon a couple of young children who were unfortunate enough to have been outside during a German shelling, that scene is particularly poignant. Indicative of the British officer of the new army, he was rather sensitive to these occurrences and often describes the horrors that he witnessed, though never in a grisly vein such as memoirs by the likes of Thomas Hope. The power of his story comes from his descriptions of the futility of war and the waste. Within three months of joining his regiment, all the friends that came with him were wounded or dead, he was lucky though, he survived the entire war unscathed, except for a superficial wound caused by a spent bullet that grazed his neck. He is highly critical of his superiors and the lack of perspective that the command had for the plight of the common soldier, though self deprecating about his own courage, or lack there of, he appears to have been a decent commander, and respected by his men, whom he over heard singing his praises as always standing beside them. There are a couple of instances when a shell would strike and the men around him would be killed yet he wouldn't be harmed. He fought at Passchendaele and later helped stem the tide of the German's spring offensive. He reached the armistice after battling a case of influenza and turned down a regular commission in the army, returning to civilian life. He escaped Singapore as the Japanese closed in during World War 2.
His memoir is indispensable, as he survived three years on the western front as an infantry officer, an amazing length of time for a subaltern of the period, especially as he was unwounded. There are numerous produced personal photographs of the author and his friends produced through out and the story is annotated where necessary to clarify terms, however, the text remains unedited and unadulterated as to his own written record, a refreshing achievement as most memoirs of the period produced today suffer from being edited with a heavy hand. This book will stay with you long after you read it and deserves a wider printing, as the only edition currently available is the William Kimber from 1979, however it can be found cheaply enough if you know where to look. I highly recommend this book.

Duncan Long does a great job of reviewing the great majority of the worlds assault rifles and subguns. This book is a great startng point for anyone interested in modern military weaponry.
The book is broken down into sections covering machine pistols, submachine guns and assault rifles and does a good job of covering the various weapons.

happy with my purchase. even had the Coonan Model B . I was really impressed with all of the guns, and full breakdowns explained. Thank you

This book has it all. Romance, murder, mystery, guns and badges. Before the first chapter you'll fall in love with the Jake and Cassie, as you live every woman's dream of being able to kick butt when you need to, and always having a guy beside you to support and encourage you and protect you while making you think you can do anything you set your heart to.
I couldn't put it down, as I wanted to see who killed who, and now I can't wait to read the second one.

This book is AWESOME. I couldnt put it down. While reading it you feel like you are in it and its real. I could so see this being a movie. What an AWESOME book.

Bambi is...well a hot, pink-haired, killing machine with a pink gun. Bambi has kidnapped a small boy with orders to deliver him to the mysterious "Old Men". Who they are and why they want the boy are not revealed, not yet anyway. But someone else wants the boy back. The Word goes out to professional hitmen and two-bit slime balls all over the country...they are to kill Bambi and bring back the boy unharmed to collect a 500,000 Yen reward. Pretty soon every pro and amateur hitman is on Bambi's trail looking to take her out as she encounters Yakuza hoods, skull masked assassins, a deranged serial killer teacher, and gunslingers in cowboy outfits...all looking to send Bambi six feet under. At the end of the first volume, Bambi faced off against a gun shop full of Cowboy killers and while she killed most of them, some managed to get away with the boy, "Pampi" in tow.

The killers are all a part of the Bloody Gang Mama, whose leader is the wretched, mean, peg-legged Mama herself. It doesn't take long for Bambi to track the gang down as she's determined to tear down the entire town to get Pampi back leading to a no-holds, battle to the death with Mama. I'm sure you can guess who wins. Later, a group of 18 wheeler trucker assassins use their rigs to box Bambi's little car in, trapping her in her toughest situation yet. The Gabba King is not giving up on his goal to get Pampi back, however, as he sends an undead, behemoth masked wrestler named "Platinum Mask" out to kill Bambi next.

Assushi Kaneko's Bambi and her Pink Gun continues its wild thrill ride of raw brutality as our heroine continues to wrack up an impressive body count of would be assassins. The battle with the truckers is particularly exciting as Kaneko uses a minimum amount of dialog and instead relies on his art to tell the story in cinematic fashion. Highly recommended!

Reviewed by Tim Janson

This book was given to me when I was 12. It helped form a strong base of gun safety for me when I was young. A must have for beginning marksmen and hunters.
Over 200 pages of information on use, safety, cleaning, different styles of guns, and much more.

The quality of McIntosh's book is as good as the guns about which he writes. I've come to expect nothing less from him.