Download or read book Into Thin Air written by Jon Krakauer and published by Anchor. This book was released on 1998-11-12 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The epic account of the storm on the summit of Mt. Everest that claimed five lives and left countless more—including Krakauer's—in guilt-ridden disarray. "A harrowing tale of the perils of high-altitude climbing, a story of bad luck and worse judgment and of heartbreaking heroism." —PEOPLE A bank of clouds was assembling on the not-so-distant horizon, but journalist-mountaineer Jon Krakauer, standing on the summit of Mt. Everest, saw nothing that "suggested that a murderous storm was bearing down." He was wrong. By writing Into Thin Air, Krakauer may have hoped to exorcise some of his own demons and lay to rest some of the painful questions that still surround the event. He takes great pains to provide a balanced picture of the people and events he witnessed and gives due credit to the tireless and dedicated Sherpas. He also avoids blasting easy targets such as Sandy Pittman, the wealthy socialite who brought an espresso maker along on the expedition. Krakauer's highly personal inquiry into the catastrophe provides a great deal of insight into what went wrong. But for Krakauer himself, further interviews and investigations only lead him to the conclusion that his perceived failures were directly responsible for a fellow climber's death. Clearly, Krakauer remains haunted by the disaster, and although he relates a number of incidents in which he acted selflessly and even heroically, he seems unable to view those instances objectively. In the end, despite his evenhanded and even generous assessment of others' actions, he reserves a full measure of vitriol for himself. This updated trade paperback edition of Into Thin Air includes an extensive new postscript that sheds fascinating light on the acrimonious debate that flared between Krakauer and Everest guide Anatoli Boukreev in the wake of the tragedy. "I have no doubt that Boukreev's intentions were good on summit day," writes Krakauer in the postscript, dated August 1999. "What disturbs me, though, was Boukreev's refusal to acknowledge the possibility that he made even a single poor decision. Never did he indicate that perhaps it wasn't the best choice to climb without gas or go down ahead of his clients." As usual, Krakauer supports his points with dogged research and a good dose of humility. But rather than continue the heated discourse that has raged since Into Thin Air's denouncement of guide Boukreev, Krakauer's tone is conciliatory; he points most of his criticism at G. Weston De Walt, who coauthored The Climb, Boukreev's version of events. And in a touching conclusion, Krakauer recounts his last conversation with the late Boukreev, in which the two weathered climbers agreed to disagree about certain points. Krakauer had great hopes to patch things up with Boukreev, but the Russian later died in an avalanche on another Himalayan peak, Annapurna I. In 1999, Krakauer received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters--a prestigious prize intended "to honor writers of exceptional accomplishment." According to the Academy's citation, "Krakauer combines the tenacity and courage of the finest tradition of investigative journalism with the stylish subtlety and profound insight of the born writer. His account of an ascent of Mount Everest has led to a general reevaluation of climbing and of the commercialization of what was once a romantic, solitary sport; while his account of the life and death of Christopher McCandless, who died of starvation after challenging the Alaskan wilderness, delves even more deeply and disturbingly into the fascination of nature and the devastating effects of its lure on a young and curious mind."

Download or read book Lost in the Wild written by Cary Griffith and published by Minnesota Historical Society. This book was released on 2008-10-14 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "True survival odysseys of two wilderness adventurers who entered the woods in search of tranquility-- but found something else entirely"--Page 4 of cover.

Download or read book Holding Their Own A Story of Survival written by Joe Nobody and published by Kemah Bay Marketing. This book was released on 2011-11-18 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This first book of the Holding Their Own series, A Story of Survival, is set in the year 2015, when the world is burdened by the second Great Depression. The United States, already weakened by internal strife, becomes the target of an international terror plot. A series of attacks results in thousands of casualties and disables the country's core infrastructure. The combination of economic hardship and the staggering blow of the terror attacks results in a collapse of the government. This is a realistic story of how an average, middle class couple survives the cascading events brought on by international politics, high tech military actions and the eventual downfall of society. All of their survival skills are tested during the action packed expedition in a world that resembles the American West of 200 years past.& ;& ;As previewed in the Epilogue of book one, "Holding Their Own II: The Independents" is scheduled for publication Spring of 2012.

Download or read book Last Man Off written by Matt Lewis and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015-05-12 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A sinister version of The Perfect Storm. Thrilling.”—Sunday Times (UK) For readers of The Perfect Storm, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, and Into the Wild There’s nothing that armchair adventure lovers relish more than a gripping true story of disaster and heroism, and Last Man Off delivers all that against a breathtaking backdrop of icebergs and killer whales. On June 6, 1998, twenty-three-year-old Matt Lewis had just started his dream job as a scientific observer aboard a deep-sea fishing boat in the waters off Antarctica. As the crew haul in the line for the day, a storm begins to brew. When the captain vanishes and they are forced to abandon ship, Lewis leads the escape onto three life rafts, where the battle for survival begins.

Download or read book A Test of Will written by Warren MacDonald and published by Hardie Grant Publishing. This book was released on 2005 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the night of April 9, 1997, Warren Macdonald, a fit and experienced bushwalker, set out to climb Mount Bowen on Hinchinbrook Island, an unspoiled tropical paradise off the Australian coast. These would be his last steps as a fully intact human being: a freak rock fall pinned him for two days alone under a one-ton boulder, resulting in a double leg amputation. A Test of Will is a story both tragic and inspiring, conveying the horror of what happened and the extraordinary spirit that helped Macdonald survive a seemingly impossible ordeal.

Download or read book Stranded written by Tim O'Shei and published by Capstone. This book was released on 2008 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Describes how hiker Amy Racina survived a fall in the Sierra Nevada mountains"--Provided by publisher.

Download or read book The Best Survival Stories Ever Told written by Jon E. Lewis and published by Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.. This book was released on 2011-11-11 with total page 533 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of classic tales comprises over thirty accounts of true-life adventure taken from contemporary memoirs, letters, and journals. They span the years from 1800 to the end of the twentieth century, in a period which can be termed the modern age of exploration. Among the writers are: Ernest Shackleton Douglas Mawson Salomon Andrée Sebastian Snow Ed Drummond Edmund Hillary Maurice Herzog Lewis and Clark Thor Heyerdahl Theodore Roosevelt Jacques Cousteau Sven Hedin Norbert Casteret Jim Corbett Charles A. Lindbergh The Best Survival Stories Ever Told recounts stories of ordinary mortals who achieved extraordinary things. Spanning the ice-locked Poles and the endless deserts of Arabia to the storm-tossed South Atlantic, the rain forests of the Amazon, and sheer peaks of the Himalayas, it charts the dangerous relationship between men and nature.

Download or read book The Greatest Survival Stories of All Time written by Cara Tabachnick and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-07-23 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of survival stories recounts the harrowing true experiences of people across the globe who faced certain death—and survived. The stories in this riveting volume seem too unbelievable to be true. Lost individuals facing the most severe natural disasters, the most dangerous situations, and the most inhospitable conditions . . . somehow making it out alive. From plane crashes and sinking ships to surviving in freezing forests and scorching deserts, this anthology includes some of the most famous, unbelievable tales of beating the odds. This book features gripping tales of sheer bravery and quick thinking, including: Juliane Koepcke, the sole survivor of a plane crash in the Peruvian Amazon Jose Salvador Alvarenga, who floated for thirteen months alone in the Pacific ocean Aron Ralston, who cut off his arm to escape the canyon he’d been trapped in Lincoln Hall, who was abandoned on Mount Everest . . . and many more.

Download or read book 438 Days written by Jonathan Franklin and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-11-17 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The miraculous account of the man who survived alone and adrift at sea longer than anyone in recorded history. For fourteen months, Alvarenga survived constant shark attacks. He learned to catch fish with his bare hands. He built a fish net from a pair of empty plastic bottles. Taking apart the outboard motor, he fashioned a huge fishhook. Using fish vertebrae as needles, he stitched together his own clothes. Based on dozens of hours of interviews with Alvarenga and interviews with his colleagues, search and rescue officials, the medical team that saved his life and the remote islanders who nursed him back to health, this is an epic tale of survival. Print run 75,000.

Download or read book True Stories of Survival Usborne True Stories written by Paul Dowswell and published by Usborne Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2013-09-01 with total page 109 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From shark attacks and blazing airships to exploding spacecraft and sinking submarines, find out what made the difference between life and death in these ten thrilling stories of survival. Gripping and engaging for readers who prefer real life to fiction.

Download or read book Touching the Void written by Joe Simpson and published by Direct Authors. This book was released on 2012-12-12 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 25th Anniversary ebook, now with more than 50 images. 'Touching the Void' is the tale of two mountaineer’s harrowing ordeal in the Peruvian Andes. In the summer of 1985, two young, headstrong mountaineers set off to conquer an unclimbed route. They had triumphantly reached the summit, when a horrific accident mid-descent forced one friend to leave another for dead. Ambition, morality, fear and camaraderie are explored in this electronic edition of the mountaineering classic, with never before seen colour photographs taken during the trip itself.

Download or read book Read Or Die written by Daphne Russell and published by Wheatmark, Inc.. This book was released on 2018-05-16 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "I look forward to the day I see yellow caution tape stretched around my students' neighborhoods, the chalk outline of apathy on the ground, crushed by the weight of a thousand books. Until then I treat each day as if books are EpiPens and every student has a shellfish allergy with a mouth full of shrimp." Most of the students in Daphne Russell's reading class have never read an entire book, and they can’t relate to Harry Potter and his magic wand. Abel is twenty-eight days behind everyone else and he needs enough books inside him to get his lungs to work again, mend his shattered heart, and kick the shit out of apathy. In her memoir Read or Die, Russell documents her daily battle as a middle school teacher in Tucson, Arizona, fighting against predetermined trajectories of less-than beliefs with an arsenal of hard covers and tattered pages. A talented and caring teacher, Russell offers a moving portrayal that combines rich autobiographical details with firsthand insight into the world of education. Read or Die is not only a compelling story, but also offers revealing and meaningful insights into education in America from a seasoned insider.

Download or read book Trapped in a Canyon written by Matt Doeden and published by Capstone. This book was released on 2007 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book describes how outdoorsman Aron Ralston survived six days with his right arm trapped by a boulder in Canyonlands National Park and his eventual self-amputation.

Download or read book Turbulence written by Annette Herfkens and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-10-04 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author discusses her eight day trek through the Vietnamese jungle after surviving a plane crash and how the lessons learned during that experience prepared her to be a mother to her autistic son.

Download or read book Storm written by Clint Willis and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adrenaline Books' search for the world's best and most exciting reading has taken readers from the peaks of Everest to the jungles of Papua, New Guinea. Now, publishing's most successful adventure literature series returns with Storm, first-hand accounts of battling the elements: hurricanes; blizzards; tornadoes; sandstorms — in mountains, seas, plains, and jungles. Included are sections from sailors, climbers, captains, and other hardy souls, such as Patrick O'Brien, Stephen Venables, Chris Bonington, Sebastian Junger, Joseph Conrad and Apsley Cherry-Garrard. Harrowing adventures that test human endurance, Storm contains stories of individuals who must fight to stay alive: Barry Lopez is trapped among arctic floes by a sudden squall; Art Davidson's team freezes in a wind storm on Mt. McKinley as the temperature hits 148 degrees below zero; an idyllic sail turns tragic when Gordon Chaplin loses his ship and lover in a South Pacific typhoon. Adrenaline Books presents the latest installment of the most thrilling accounts of men and women who have had to face the full force of nature's fury.

Download or read book Survival Stories written by Kathryn Rhett and published by Doubleday Books. This book was released on 1997 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Memoirs of crisis--of depression, alienation, divorce, illness, death--have recently become tremendously popular among both readers and critics alike. When poet Kathryn Rhett experienced her own crisis, she found comfort in others' stories of adversity and related to their survival tales. A teacher at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, Rhea taught a course in memoir. She soon came to realize that many memoirs are actually stories of survival and so her new course, survival stories, was born. Survival Stories is an outgrowth of this workshop. A collection of memoirs of crisis, "Survival Stories speaks to our need to write and read about life-changing experiences. Here twenty writers-including Lucy Grealy, Rick Moody, Reynolds Price, and William Styron-reveal the variety and power of crisis memoir. Whether it be Lauren Slater talking about obsessive compulsive disorder, Christopher Davis coping with his brother's murder, or Christina Middlebrook reliving her bone marrow transplant, each of these essays speaks to a fundamental human need to come to terms with difficulty and loss. The writers and readers of crisis memoirs are survivors, the ones left to tell the story, the ones left to live. The experience of crisis is universal, it is the moment of decision or upheaval that profoundly changes the course of a life. "Survival Stories is a celebration of memoir as an art form and the human instinct to survive and adapt to adversity.

Download or read book Epic written by Conor Kostick and published by The O'Brien Press. This book was released on 2012-07-01 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #WELCOME TO EPIC: PRESS START TO PLAY#. On New Earth, Epic is not just a computer game, it's a matter of life and death. If you lose, you lose everything; if you win, the world is yours for the taking. Seeking revenge for the unjust treatment of his parents, Erik subverts the rules of the game, and he and his friends are drawn into a world of power-hungry, dangerous players. Now they must fight the ultimate masters of the game -- The Committee. But what Erik doesn't know is that The Committee has a sinister, deadly secret, and challenging it could destroy the whole world of Epic.