{"id":232,"date":"2016-01-28T16:55:07","date_gmt":"2016-01-28T16:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kathleenstarmer.com\/?p=232"},"modified":"2016-02-03T06:21:49","modified_gmt":"2016-02-03T06:21:49","slug":"book-review-the-disaster-diaries-by-sam-sheridan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vosvado.com\/book-review-the-disaster-diaries-by-sam-sheridan","title":{"rendered":"BOOK REVIEW: The Disaster Diaries (by Sam Sheridan)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Disaster<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The study of emergency preparedness can be pretty bleak.<\/p>\n

After all, you\u2019ve got your natural disasters, your manmade disasters, your civil unrest, your economic instability\u2026. Really, it\u2019s enough to make a person throw in the towel and ignore the whole shebang.<\/p>\n

Unless. Unless you\u2019re a mixed martial arts fighter whose name is Sam Sheridan.<\/p>\n

Sam is not one to roll over and play dead. Sam is not a guy to bury his head in the sand. Rather, when awakened to the potential disasters that face humanity, Sam is the sort of person who confronts the challenge head on. How? With education and training.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s what it\u2019s really all about at the end of the day, is it not? You can have all the stockpiled food and water you can possibly fit in your house. You can have miles of gauze rolls and crates of toilet paper. But those are all just supplies that can be depleted in an extended crisis. Or that can disappear in a flash if the storage locale is compromised through, say, an earthquake or fire.<\/p>\n

But skills and knowledge? Those are with you to the end.<\/p>\n

In his book The Disaster Diaries<\/a>, Sam describes the journey of developing his skills arsenal in a rather clever way. To wit, he envisions his family in an ever-worsening apocalyptic scenario. As each chapter begins, he lays out the challenge (a monster quake in the middle of LA, zombie invasion, alien attack, evading cannibals, living off the land) and describes the predicament he finds himself in because he\u2019s not equipped to handle that particular scenario. As the chapter unfolds, he describes his real-life pursuit of acquiring the skills necessary to defeat that particular chapter\u2019s foe, and he wraps up each section by re-envisioning how he would attack the challenge laid out at the chapter\u2019s onset\u2026always with a triumphant outcome.<\/p>\n

In all, Mr. Sheridan shares his journey as he acquires peak fitness (no small feat for an already-accomplished martial artist!), learns about food storage, becomes accomplished in various methods of self-defense (again, as a martial artist, you\u2019d think he\u2019d have this covered. You\u2019d be wrong.), undertakes advanced field medical techniques (and learns how to cope with PTSD), and becomes adept at both stealing and defensively driving cars. As if that weren\u2019t enough, he also learns to live off the land, becoming skilled in hunting, trapping, and knapping his own flint points. It\u2019s pretty intense.<\/p>\n

My chief complaint about the book? Although it\u2019s chockful of useful tips, they\u2019re buried in the narrative. This is not a new approach–indeed, sharing lessons via parable is as old as human history–but if you\u2019re a person looking for a cookbook on \u201chow to prepare,\u201d it can be frustrating to lift the key information out of the flow of the story. An appendix listing key elements within each chapter\u2019s focus would have been most useful.<\/p>\n

On the whole, however, it is an entertaining and educational read that is likely to inspire you to prepare a wee bit beyond buying a case of canned soup. I know I, for one, wouldn\u2019t want to come across Mr. Sheridan when he\u2019s in a bad mood\u2026but I\u2019d love to have him on my side in case of calamity. He\u2019s truly turned himself into the Swiss Army knife of survivalists. Using his book as a guide, you can, too.<\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The study of emergency preparedness can be pretty bleak. After all, you\u2019ve got your natural disasters, your manmade disasters, your civil unrest, your economic instability\u2026. Really, it\u2019s enough to make a person throw in the towel and ignore the whole shebang. Unless. Unless you\u2019re a mixed martial arts fighter whose name is Sam Sheridan. Sam is not one to roll … <\/p>\n

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