My Thoughts on Blogging and the School Year. [English Final]

1. Explain one or two ways audience feedback helped you grow over the semester. (It doesn't have to be stuff Sutherland said.)
• Have you been tracking your blog's traffic with Google Analytics? If so, you can respond to this prompt using the rich data that Analytics provides: Where is your audience reading from? What are your most popular posts (and why do you think they got the most traffic?) There are lots of possibilities here...

    In my first literature circle blog post for "Patient Zero", the actual author Jonathan Maberry commented on it. This was a tremendously surprising thing that happened to me and it actually made me feel motivated to dedicate more time and effort into the whole Literature Circle process. For example, my Confessions of an Economic Hit Man book review took me a considerably long time compared to the other one's I've done. This is made evident in my use of multiple quotes found in the novel (which took longer than I would have liked) as well as my analysis of the quotes and some themes that are shown. Peer feedback, well any feedback in this case has proven to get me motivated. It lets me know that people are actually taking their time to read what I have to write and it doesn't feel like as much of an assignment anymore. This aspect of it has definitely made blogging/writing more enjoyable. 

    The introduction of Google Analytics really made me pay attention to my blog more often. I would check out the site every now and then out of curiosity about what kind of data it would read. Actually, I posted a post about how cool I thought it was. Since then my blogging data has evolved a lot. As of November 27, 2009 I had a total of 63 views with an average of 1:38 spent on my blogspot. Looking at it now, I have a total of 366 views with an average time of 1:07 being spent there. A surprising little fact is that my original statement of purpose has had 66 page views alone, 47 of them being from different computers. Now this is one of those things where I have no idea why it has become like that, but for some reason it's the most popular/viewed post that I have to date. My absolute favorite aspect about Google Analytics however, would be the Map Overlay feature which shows where in the world people have visited your blog. I have 366 page views from 19 countries/territories. Now this is really really surprsiing to me because I have no idea how anybody would ever find my blog out of all the blogs out there. Besides having it linked to my Tumblr, I cannot think of any other way people would be exposed to it. I've had visits from places like, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Germany, Brazil, Pakistan, Russia, India, Belgium and Norway. These countries are all around the world so it's not like only a certain region of the world has viewed my blog. These kinds of statistics simply amaze me. The power of a blog can be limitless as long as you have valuable feedback and good content. I've learned that people will find your blog and it gives me a kind of grateful feeling. It's cool to know that all the effort I put into this blog isn't all for waste and people are actually reading it. Thank you to my followers especially! 

2. How do you like having a blog? How has blogging changed the way you write, the way you think, or the way you think about writing?
• Has blogging had any other effects on your life beyond strictly your "school life"? If so, explain.
• For the second semester only: Do you plan on continuing to publish writing on your blog this summer, next year, or beyond? If so, what are your writing goals and how will you use your blog in the future?

    Well, blogging for me hasn't ever been a new thing unlike a lot of other people. I was first exposed to blogs back in 2006-2007. During that period of time I didn't write much and it was pretty boring writing. I would just write about my thoughts or my day, like a type of online journal because I knew nobody who I knew would really be reading it. Since then, I've had numerous other blogs made simply out of boredom and as time progressed I started to post more and more frequently. I would actually get to the point where I started to feel kind of bad because I didn't post anything in a long period of time. For my blog before this one (which will remain anonymous), I actually managed to produce 66 different posts spanning from 4/26/09 - 8/22/09, so a little under 4 months. That's pretty crazy now that I think about it. Now this blog that I have now is very different compared to the past ones. 

   

    I feel like it's this one that has been the most changed compared to the previous. First of all, the thing that helped develop my blog was that a post was due every week for a grade, requirements were set and I got to work. I wanted this blog to be something meaningful. When Mr. Sutherland first introduced the whole blogging process I know that I could have just BSed everything and created pointless posts, but then I wouldn't get anything out of this whole thing. The key to having a successful blog in my mind is dedication. You cannot get lazy on your posts, or skimp out on the content of it. Knowing my peers/friends could read what I was publishing, I wanted to write better. I tried to make this blog more formal than others and tried to treat each post as an actual writing assignment.

    I would say that my blogging style has evolved into a combination of daily life posts, along with content filled posts that others can relate to. This has all come together in my latest blog. I don't think blogging has has much effect on my "school life". The one thing I would say however, would be that it has helped me produce writing much quicker and more efficiently. I'm not sure if this is because of blogging itself, or the quickwrites that we do in class, but either way it's helped my writing. 

    As of now, I'm not quite sure if I plan to continue with this blogspot account. Tumblr's user interface is just set-up so much better and has made it easier to get exposed to different blogs and have contact with others. Also, since a lot of people have Tumblr accounts nowadays, (because there was some trend about it apparently....) it's a lot easier to network with a wide number of people that I know. I might occasionally return to blogspot to make a post, but I doubt I'll post more than once a month. As for my plans for blogging in general, I hope to achieve a wider audience, while writing about posts relevant to my life, and not just posting pictures and videos. As said in my statement of purpose I still hope to improve my writing and vocabulary. I plan to also create more posts that are meaningful and post them more frequently. As for now, I think I'm just going to blog when I feel like it. Summer is around the corner and it's been a long long year. Blogging has definitely changed the way I think of writing nowadays, as well as the process I go through with coming up with a piece of writing. 

I hope that this will not be the last post on this blog, but who knows?

Thank you for an amazing school year and I wish you well on your future endeavors. 

                                                                  
                                                        With love,

                                                                Alvin Lee 

Confessions of an Ecnomic Hit man Book Review

1. Find out about the author. How did they end up writing this particular book? Is the author's true life reflected in the book in any way(s)?
   
   
2. For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell? (In other words, for whom would you recommend this book?)

     For my final literature circle book I chose to read "Confessions of an Economic Hit man" written by John Perkins. This book tells the life of the author, John Perkins and how he ended up working for one of the nation's top private companies as an economic hit man.

    As John was growing up, he was a pretty normal child. He was born in Hanover, New Hampshire and attended a private school there. During his teenage years, John always would hangout with the "poor kids". His town was segregated by social class and while John was in the top half of the social ranking scale, he would often play with the middle and lower middle-class children. He never understood why there had to be such a distance that needed to be kept away from the rich and the poor. It was this type of understanding and innocence that would play a critical role in his life later on. A life as an economic hit man.

    "Once you're in, you can never back out." is a quote from the book that best describes the main point of John's life. As an economic hit man, his job was to travel from country to country discussing with foreign politicians about why or how they should allow United States privately owned companies to build on their land. He did this based on methods of being an economist. He would survey the country and estimate (very accurately) how much money the country would make, or save over a number of certain years. This happens in third world countries across the world and so they eventually end up indebted to the United States. As the United States has a firm grasp on the country, they go ahead and use it to their advantages. Whether it is another vote in the United Nations, or to grant more construction projects (mostly military) on their soil.

    This type of scheming and planning is really quite brilliant in a way. This kind of "global domination" can never be traced back to the government because it is always linked to a private company. However, these privately owned corporations have very close ties with the government. The particular company that John worked for was named Chas. T. Main Inc, or MAIN for short. This quote from the book briefly summarizes how this would work.
   
    "I was initially recruited while I was in business school back in the late sixties by the National Security Agency, the nation’s largest and least understood spy organization; but ultimately I worked for private corporations. The first real economic hit man was back in the early 1950s, Kermit Roosevelt, Jr., the grandson of Teddy, who overthrew the government of Iran, a democratically elected government, Mossadegh’s government who was Time‘s magazine person of the year; and he was so successful at doing this without any bloodshed—well, there was a little bloodshed, but no military intervention, just spending millions of dollars and replaced Mossadegh with the Shah of Iran. At that point, we understood that this idea of economic hit man was an extremely good one. We didn’t have to worry about the threat of war with Russia when we did it this way. The problem with that was that Roosevelt was a C.I.A. agent. He was a government employee. Had he been caught, we would have been in a lot of trouble. It would have been very embarrassing. So, at that point, the decision was made to use organizations like the C.I.A. and the N.S.A. to recruit potential economic hit men like me and then send us to work for private consulting companies, engineering firms, construction companies, so that if we were caught, there would be no connection with the government."

    As time went on, John rose in his company, becoming one of the top executives, but his conscience would always remind him that he was doing something wrong. This type of mental battle can be seen very clearly throughout the book.

    " It shook me to the core. I stomped out of the room and headed for Charlie's office. Halfway there, I stopped, uncertain about what I intended to accomplish. Instead, I turned and walked down the stairs, out the door, into the afternoon sun...A huge lump grew in my throat...I fought hard to hold back the tears; I needed to figure out why I felt so miserable. You're in it for the money. I heard Howard's words, over and over. He had struck a raw nerve."

    Eventually, he decided to leave. He quit the company, gave up everything that he had and decided to get away from all of this. John felt that it was necessary that the general public need to be told this truth of the hidden motives of our government, the World Bank, etc. So, he decides to write a book about it, however he is stopped multiple times by things that suddenly seem to pop up like job offers, threats, and bribes. Finally, after September 11th, John decides for the last time that the truth needs to be told. Truth be told, he wrote this book because he felt guilty of the things he's done. John basically feels like he's owed it to the public, as well as his family to reveal this truth. Therefore, I believe that this book should be read by everyone, young or old. There might be some setbacks to the younger readers though because there is wide variety of vocabulary that may not be comprehensible at such an age.

    This book was a real eye-opener for me and I'm sure it'll have the same effect on anyone else who chooses to pick up this book. John has also done other work related to this. He's made a move entitled Confessions of an Economic Hit Man in 2009, which shows interviews with John. He's also featured in the film Zeitgeist: Addendum, which I HIGHLY recommend to anyone who is interested in this type of government conspiracy theme. This book was written very well and I'm glad I was given the opportunity to read it.

Confessions of an Ecnomic Hit man [Part 3]

Well I have finally finished my last literature circle book. This last part post will be difficult since I will be very tempted to just summarize the entire novel. In the final chapters of the book, it talks about John basically listening to his inner conscience and deciding to write/finish up this book. I actually really enjoyed this part of the book because of all the in depth thought put into every single little aspect of what he's talked about previously in the beginning. Upon finishing this book, a lot of questions are meant to arise from you head. To most of the readers out there this material is a whole new eye opener, and to others, it's nothing more than just a confirmation of your theories. In any case, this book was created and written to inspire. To get the reader to think, take action, not believe everything that you are told. To be honest, it's had some inspiration for me. I doubt I'm going to write to my senators about my concerns about the government, or make phone calls to local politicians and give them my side of the story, but this has inspired me to get others to try and read this book. Spreading this knowledge will do some good in this society. Educate the ignorant, and maybe, just maybe somebody will act upon it. A quote that I believe really summerizes this would be:

"...the world as you dream it, and that we can trade in that old nightmare of polluting industries, clogged highways, and overcrowded cities for a new dream based on Earth-honoring and socially responsible principles of sustainability and equality. It is within our power to transform ourselves , to change the paradigm." pg. 292

Now, think about that quote for a second. If a great amount of people read this book, I can only imagine how society would be different. I don't want to give too much away because this book can put it into better word than I ever could, but nevertheless this book needs to be read. Your mind will be blown one way or another. Wait for my book review, I have trouble holding back what I want to say. Just know, if you want to be more in-tune with the world, reading this book is a must.

Confessions of an Ecnomic Hit man [Part 2]

The process of the author telling his story is getting more and more interesting for me. I am not sure why this is, but for some reason I feel more drawn into the storyline compared to the first part of the book. Maybe it's because I get to see him slowly developing into the economic hit man. As the novel progresses, John becomes more and more involved with his job.

"By 1977, I had built a small empire that included a staff of around twenty professionals headqueatered in our Boston office, and a stable of consultants from MAIN's other departments and offices scattered across the globe. I had become the youngest partner in the firm's hundred-year history. In addition to my title of Chief Economist, I was named manager of Economics and Regional Planning. I was lecturing at Harvard and other venues, and newspapers were soliciting articles from me about current events. I owned a sailing yacht...I was being paid an excellent salary and I had equity that promised to elevate me to the rarified heights of millionaire well before I turned forty." (Chapter 17 page 117).

As you can see from this quote, John is well on his way to becoming a top economist. He's living the life that seems only to be true in dreams, and he feels really satisfied with his decisions and what he is doing at this point. However, along the way he faces obstacles, or conscious reminders about how dark and evil his job really is. This seems to be the never ending battle in this novel, and it seems like every time he has made up his mind, something comes up to stir it all up again. I like how the author does this to keep the reader hooked on the book. I don't want to reveal too much, but this book is very enjoyable so far!

Confessions of an Ecnomic Hit man [Part 1]

The New York Times Bestseller, Confessions of an Economic Hit man by John Perkins is what I'll be reading for my Literature Circle. I remember first hearing about the basics of this book from Mr. Sutherland when he first introduced the class to the whole concept of literature circles. While he was giving his brief summary on the book, it started to peak my interest. Words like scheme, globalization, hit man, etc. really caught my attention. My first thought after hearing about the book was the movie Zeitgeist which talks about related topics. I didn't enjoy the last book I read, so I figured I would finish the year strong with a book that I will hopefully find satisfying.
After reading the first few pages of the book I was quite surprised at how this book was written. It's a much harder book to read and follow than I had originally thought, but it's still manageable. The first part of the book starts off as an introduction to the author's life, how he got into the business and how he felt about it. The part that I read in which I really enjoyed was when he was situated in Indonesia and instead of living the rich and fancy life of his co-workers, he decides to spend a night out with some locals which changes his views on things. Another part of the book that was touching is when he starts to have a change of heart.
" It shook me to the core. I stomped out of the room and headed for Charlie's office. Halfway there, I stopped, uncertain about what I intended to accomplish. Instead, I turned and walked down the stairs, out the door, into the afternoon sun...A huge lump grew in my throat...I fought hard to hold back the tears; I needed to figure out why I felt so miserable. You're in it for the money. I heard Howard's words, over and over. He had struck a raw nerve." pg. 37
This passage is really emotional and shows the author's conflict in fighting to believe in his morals and gut feelings versus his job and nationalism. As this book progresses I am interested to see what happens. One thing that caught me by surprise is that it's not as action packed as I thought. For some reason I expected him to be an actual hit man at times too, but I guess not. Well, so far so good.

The Memory of Earth Part 3

The final part of The Memory of Earth is basically the only part that makes sense to me. A lot of  the stuff that was confusing before starts to make sense. I started to wrap my head around this weird plot and it turned out to be quite interesting. So basically Nafai, the main protagonist in the story has to team up with his family to find the Index of the Oversoul. Mid-way  through my reading, there was a separate plot twist. This man named Gaballufix, who tries to draw Basilica into a war against the Gorayni. Nafai and his family find out about his evil plan, and they fight with each other about what to do about the situation. They need to retrieve the Index for the Oversoul, but they don't want to kill Gaballufix either. Gaballufix fights back by forcing the family to retreat out of the city and into the desert. He also plans to kill off the influential people of Basilica and overthrow the society's rules. I find that this is a very interesting point in the book, that actually got me sort of interested in it. However I do not think that it should have taken this long, to reveal this type of information to the reader. If this was introduced earlier then I think many more people would be hooked to this book from the start. I've read many reviews about how Orson Card has written an amazing novel and a great start of a series, but I don't see how people could like a book that progresses so slowly. There's just too much extra detail that does not contribute to the main plot whatsoever, so giving the reader too much information can make the story become confusing. Overall, I think this book has room for improvement, but isn't a total failure.

The Memory of Earth: Part 2

Finally! This book is starting to develop, it's not as fast paced as I would like, but progress is progress. From what I can make out, the protagonist in this book is Nafai, the youngest of four brothers. He is an 18 year old boy still learning about the customs of adulthood and how to be a man. So as he goes off to visit his mother in Basilica, his father gets a vision of the city being burned to the ground. As I read further into the novel, the plot thickens and trouble arises. The main problem that I have with this book is the way that it's written. I mean, I suppose most fantasy type novels are similar to this, but for some reason I keep having to go back and reread sections. I just get lost sometimes during the time in which I read and it can get annoying to stop and go back to clear things up. I can say one thing for sure though, this book was not what I expected it to be like, but it's got a unique twist to it. From it's good reviews, I cannot understand why I can't seem to enjoy this book. Whenever I read a section of it, I just find myself in a bored state of mind. Perhaps that's why I keep having to go back and reread sections. I guess it all depends on the type of person you are, and what type of literature you enjoy. Reading is definitely easier though, if you actually read a book that you enjoy, or are fascinated in. I suppose this was bound to happen eventually, I mean I'm not going to enjoy all the books that I read. This one probably isn't as bad as I'm making it sound, but it just kind of annoys me. The more I read, the more questions that pop up, and only a few get answered. I don't want to post most of these questions up because it won't make sense unless you are actually reading the book, but for now I'm pretty confused. Still.

The Memory of Earth: Part 1

The first thing that intrigued me about this book was the title. The Memory of Earth made me believe that this book was about the destruction of the planet Earth and what happened afterwords. Well so far, this is kind of true. From what I've read so far, I believe that the story takes place on another planet called Harmony. From the cover of the book I can tell that the characters live in a desert-type environment and their clothing and it's style looks quite old. This is the confusing part, originally I thought that this book was about the future because it talked about how Earth was destroyed and such, but I don't understand why the technology didn't seem to advance or progress. However there is one exception, the protagonist's brother, Issib is disabled, but instead of being in a wheelchair, he is on a levitating chair which is quite interesting. I think this book is pretty dull so far compared to my last book filled with zombies and shootings. This one is more of a fantasy book, but I do hope for some action later on. This early on in the book, I can't make out what the plot seems to be, except for the fact that the Overseer, a master computer designed to fix human problems, is in trouble and is seeking help from citizens. The concept is pretty strange, but I do have a little bit of hope for it. This book is tough for me to read because there are some made up words in here that make it hard to keep up with the storyline. I think next time I should be choosing a book earlier on instead of last minute, that way I can get a better understanding of whether or not I'll enjoy reading it. So far, the reading to me feels forced rather than me actually wanting to read it like my previous book. Who knows though? Never judge a book by it's cover.

Patient Zero Book Review

For my literature circle book, I read the action packed Patient Zero: A Joe Ledger Novel by Jonathan Maberry. So when I first set my eyes upon this book, I wasn't immediately attracted to it, nor did I find it something that I would pick up and start reading on my own. No, I would have to thank my partner Damien for making such a good selection of a book because I actually enjoyed this book very thoroughly. My first impression of this book was, great another zombie thriller/horror apocalypse type theme, but that's far from the case. This book is far from your average zombie book, in fact this action packed sci-fi novel has many plot twists and turns throughout the book that will keep you from setting the book down. The main thing I would say that I like about this book is the detailing that goes into it. Knowing that the author took a great deal of time researching and thinking the ideas that are presented in this book is a very comforting thought to know. I recommend this novel to anybody who is even slightly interested in science fiction, or they like zombie type things. I think they will enjoy the refreshing new vibe that Jonathan Maberry brings to his book.

This novel starts off introducing the character of Joe Ledger, the main protagonist in the story. He is basically a guy with a whole bunch of backgrounds from various military/ law enforcement/ secret service groups. So, as you can tell he's a pretty experienced man. The novel starts off with some action and Joe soon finds himself in the middle of a secret military corporation. He is let in on a secret biochemical weapon that terrorists are developing that is nothing like what the world has witnessed before. Now this is not your typical zombie book, and readers will notice this right away. A big difference is that the author makes you believe this type of action and terror can actually become a reality. He bases as much of the book as he can on pure fact, and only some parts are fictional just to fit the story line. This in itself, makes the book stand out as a great read. Another interesting thing that the author does is give you two points of views. You get to see the plot unfolding from Joe Ledger's point of view as well as the antagonists'. I think that this helps the reader understand the plot better because you get access to both sides of the story and their thoughts. It's actually a very interesting concept that I believe has worked well to increase this novel's stand-out factor.

The one flaw that I would say this book has is it's over detailing. This is a fast paced book so if you don't get the story at some point, you may have to reread some parts. Also, this may be a personal thing, but the author goes too much into the detailing of the biochemical weapon. I like the fact that he is using actual science to back up his novel's details, but at points it just feels like a rambling textbook and can get rather dull.

Besides the very few pages of scientific detailing, the rest of the book is action packed. You can find some sort of fight in basically every reading you take. This is also a great book for people interested in the military or guns because this novel is packed with them. It's basically your typical guy book and I doubt any typical girl would enjoy it, so I would definitely recommend this to teenage boys. Not only did I find the author's style of writing interesting, but I couldn't put the book down when I knew  a fight scene was about to happen. It's just something about the writing that gets me hooked on them and I simply can not wait to flip to the next page to find out what happens. Also, if you think this book is all about guns and explosions, you're wrong. A good part of it goes into the development of characters and even a romance spawns. Whenever I read the book, I feel like I'm in the shoes of the person, from whosoever's perspective I may be in and I go along with their thoughts.  I don't know how to quite describe it, but I can kind of relate to the characters, not in a sense of something we have in common, but I understand them well and can tell what they would do in certain situations. That in itself is very hard for an author to do, but I believe Maberry has done a phenomenal job at it.

The saying, "Don't judge a book by it's cover." really applies to me for this book. Although it does not seem appealing from the outside, the depth and detailing that it goes through is worth it. I'm glad that my partner chose this book for the group because otherwise I wouldn't have picked this book up on my own. It really is an exceptional book and a wonderful read. The author apparently is making a series out of these books, which I did not find out about until my first literature circle blog post. The ending doesn't leave any opening that I could think of for this book to continue on with its plot, but knowing the author, he'd probably think of something.  I think I could most relate this book to the Alex Rider series, if anyone is familiar with that. It's kinda of like your James Bond in modern times type book. I would for sure read the next book in the series if I had the chance and I think if you're looking for a good action book, this is the book to go for. I only hope that the next book that I chose for literature circles would be as satisfying to read as this one.

Patient Zero Part 3

This section of the book is by far the best part. Everything that was built up in the beginning and middle all come down to this last section at the end. While I was reading this part of the book, I literally could not put my hands down. I had to finish the book, no matter how tired I was from reading I just could not stop. The descriptions of the fight scenes and the environment are very detailed and it made the book just that much more addicting. The climax of the book occurs when the main protagonist meets the antagonist and also finds out the identity of a traitor amongst them. He ends up fighting them in a bloody battle that is nothing short of exciting.
Also in this section of the book, the author goes more in depth with the different characters and their behavior, a romance blossoms and a new twist is added at the end. The author never ceases to have a boring part in the book, which makes it highly addicting.
During the fighting or action scenes with the book I felt excitement rushing through me, waiting to see what would happen next, or what the outcome would be. At some points of the book I was worried that a lot of the main characters would die off, so the author did a good job on creating suspense too. Another aspect that is interesting about this book is that it tells the story from the antagonists' point of view also. So I read about Joe Ledger, I also got a feeling of what the enemy was up to. Towards the end, the antagonists end up fighting each other, and one of them makes a brave choice to save the world. The ending was typical, but what surprised me was that it leaves no opening for a sequel to follow up on. Overall this was a very good read.

Patient Zero Part 2 (Chapter 41-71)

During this section of the novel things really started to pick up. Jonathan Maberry goes into further detailing about how the whole zombie thing works and at some parts it gets really scientific. I try to get the overall understanding of the situation, but sometimes it gets too complex for me. However, I do enjoy how seriously the author is taking his novel to go this far into detailing. An example of this would be when Dr. Hu explains his theory on how the zombie disease works:

"Prions are neurodegenerative diseases called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies...sometimes you see it occurring as a result of cornea or dura mater transplants, or in the administration of human-derived pituitary growth hormones...they are not compatible according to what we know of modern transgenics---or they've found a way to alter the chemistry of the body to cause artificial hibernation...Once the victim is in hibernation this disease cluster reorganizes the functioning matrix of the body. It somehow uses fatal familial insomnia protein to wake the victim up again and keep them awake."

Not only is the fine attention to detailing a factor that keeps me hooked onto the book, but the fast-paced action scenes as well are described incredibly. It takes a person with a great deal of creativity and imagination to create such a fictional story, like a zombie invasion and turn it into something that can be relatively believable. From the author's comments on my last post (which is still shocking) I'm excited to find out that he's made this book into a series. This book is a really exciting read with a blend of action/thriller and science based horror. I am well ahead of the schedule of the pace that the class should be reading at and I don't think it'll slow down until I finish the book. I can't wait to see how the plot unfolds and thickens even more, and most of all see how it all accumulates into a climax.

Patient Zero Part 1 (Chapter 1-40)

Dear Damien,
I must say, you have a good taste in books. When I first picked up this novel I was doubtful. My first impression was, 'Great, another typical zombie apocalypse book.' This book however proved me wrong. The story starts off at a good pace and after the first few pages you can tel that the author has done his fair share of research. After the first few minutes of reading, I've read about different types of guns, government organizations as well as tactics used by federal agents. This was the thing that really caught my attention, the authors detailed description of everything is laid out perfectly almost making it feel like I have what it takes to become a secret agent. There's no doubt about it that this is a guy's book. Zombies, guns, fighting, and blood. What more could you ask for?

The main protagonist in the story is Joe Ledger, a Baltimore detective with a super ego. He used to be from the military and was no doubt, the top of the class. However, Ledger soon finds himself full of mixed emotions when he is recruited by a super top secret organization called DMS (Department of Military Sciences) to help stop a group of terrorists from releasing a deadly bioweapon that can turn ordinary humans in zombies.

The thing that gets me hooked onto the book is the action factor. It reminds me of a mix between James Bond and Bad Boys. What kid growing up didn't want to become a secret agent at one point? Through Jonathan Maberry's writing I feel like I'm with the character. The close attention to detail on everything is amazing and a little bonus factor is the science in all this. Much of the technical information in the novel is based upon actual science, with the few exceptions. So far I have gotten hooked onto the book already and it's growing more interesting with each chapter I complete. I can't wait to see how this plot unfolds and turns out.