Alive, The Story of the Andes Survivors  •  Piers Paul Read TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2002 •  PAPER  • 416 PAGES The gripping tale of survival against all odds: a plane crashes in the Andes, all passengers presumed dead. Read tells the story of terrible hardship, bravery and horror with admirable restraint. Most of the passengers, barely teenagers, were members of a rugby team from Uruguay, and the account includes much insight into Uruguayan culture and society. (AND38, $7.99)
Annapurna, The Epic Account of a Himalayan Conquest and its Harrowing Aftermath  •  Maurice Herzog EXPLORATION •  1997 •  PAPER  • 314 PAGES • FAVORITE This classic account of the first ascent of an 8,000-meter peak was dictated by expedition leader Herzog from his hospital bed in Paris. Herzog and his companions originated the now well established practice of using Sherpas and acclimatizing to higher and higher altitudes at a series of base camps. The extraordinary rescue and agonizing return to civilization is all the more powerful for its matter-of-fact tone. The book also includes a glimpse of Ghurka society in Nepal, circa 1950. (HML07, $16.95)
Aristophene's Lysistrata  •  Aristophanes  •  Nicholas Rudall LITERATURE •  1991 •  PAPER  • 65 PAGES Written in 414 B.C. in the aftermath of yet another disaster in the endless Peloponnesian War, this is Aristophene's great send-up of the follies of men and war. It famously opens with a wild fertility ritual involving a giant red phallus. In a straight-forward colloquial translation by Nicholas Randall. (GRE79, $9.95)
Desert Survival Skills  •  David Alloway GUIDEBOOK •  2000 •  PAPER  • 288 PAGES A practical guide to survival in the desert, leavened by Alloway's sense of humor and own experience in the Chihuahuan desert. Topics include finding and conserving water, fire, shelter, weather, plant and animal resources, vehicle repair and first aid. (DES06, $24.95)
Endurance, An Epic of Polar Adventure  •  Frank Worsley  •  Patrick O'Brian EXPLORATION •  2000 •  PAPER  • 320 PAGES First published in 1931, this memoir opens in Shackleton's cabin aboard the Endurance in 1913 and ends with Shackleton's death at South Georgia on January 5, 1922. It's Worsely's modest account high adventure, not only as a key member of the Endurance expedition but also as a combatant in WWI. A valued friend, Worsley also participated on Shackleton's last expedition. (ANT73, $13.95)
Endurance, Shackleton's Incredible Voyage  •  Alfred Lansing EXPLORATION •  1998 •  PAPER  • 280 PAGES • BEST SELLER • FAVORITE An extraordinary tale of survival that reads like a good novel. It's the gripping day-by-day story of Shackleton's legendary perseverance: losing his ship in the ice, drifting helplessly across the Weddell Sea, and finally reaching Elephant Island, from where he sailed 800 miles to South Georgia to get help for his stranded men. With maps and a 8-page selection of Frank Hurley photographs. (ANT03, $14.95)
Epic, Stories of Survival from the World's Highest Peaks  •  Clint Willis ANTHOLOGY •  1997 •  PAPER  • 342 PAGES A greatest-hits collection of mountaineering literature, Willis excerpts 15 stories, including Mathiessen's classic "The Snow Leopard," and harrowing passages from Everest, the West Ridge, K2, The Savage Mountain, Annapurna and others. Not just the Himalayas, he also includes the tale of the first-traverse of South Georgia by Shackleton. Each excerpt is satisfying long, as interesting for the quality of the writing as the adventure depicted. (HML37, $17.95)
Everest, Mountain Without Mercy  •  Broughton Coburn NATURAL HISTORY •  2003 •  PAPER  • 256 PAGES Spectacularly photographed, this book is an account of the making of the IMAX film on Everest, including an account of the 1996 disaster. (HML20, $24.00)
The Famished Road  •  Ben Okri LITERATURE •  1993 •  PAPER  • 500 PAGES The story of Azaro, a spirit-child who chooses to enter the world of the living. In this case, the living world is an African village that struggles to combat hunger, disease, violence and British rule. Winner of the 1991 Booker Prize, this book by Nigerian-born Okri focuses on human survival and the mysteries of love. (WAF39, $15.95)
Give Us This Day  •  Sidney Stewart BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1999 •  PAPER  • 254 PAGES Captured in Bataan in 1942, 21 year old Sidney Stewart endured over three years of captivity. This is his harrowing account of that time as a prisoner of war. Heralded by many as one of the great works about prisoners of war, this book is more than just a retelling of the events of the Bataan Death March, it is a gripping story of human will. (SEA19, $13.95)
Heart of Darkness, with Congo Diary  •  Joseph Conrad LITERATURE •  1995 •  PAPER  • 166 PAGES A monumentally influential literary work, this short story tells of Marlow's harrowing journey into the Belgian Congo. Rich with irony, this story blurs the lines between savagery and civilization. This edition also includes selections from Conrad's journal while he was in the Congo, creating a blueprint for his later writings. (AFR46, $7.95)
Hungry Ghosts, Mao's Secret Famine  •  Jasper Becker HISTORY •  1998 •  PAPER  • 352 PAGES After digging through academic studies and incorporating survivor accounts, Jaspar Becker has produced the definitive work on the devastating famine that overtook China in the 1950s and 1960s. Brought about by the Mao's attempt to redistribute food, this mass starvation caused the death of tens of millions. (CHN99, $19.00)
In the Heart of the Sea, The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex  •  Nathaniel Philbrick HISTORY •  2001 •  PAPER  • 302 PAGES It's hard to go wrong with a seafaring tale of mythical beasts, cannibalism and sturdy 19th-century New Englanders. Phibrick, an amateur historian, does himself proud in this enthralling tale, recounting the true-life event that inspired Melville's "Moby Dick." He focuses on the aftermath and the history of Nantucket as much as the mighty whale in this history. (OCE47, $15.00)
Into the Wild  •  Jon Krakauer EXPLORATION •  1997 •  PAPER  • 224 PAGES The gripping tale of a young man searching for experience, wilderness and himself, who meets death during a solo journey into the Alaskan wilds north of Mt. McKinley in 1992. (ALA52, $13.95)
Into Thin Air, A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster  •  Jon Krakauer EXPLORATION •  1997 •  HARD COVER  • 256 PAGES In this bestseller, climber and journalist Krakauer reconstructs a minute-by-minute account of what went wrong on the great mountain in 1996. He captures the immediacy of those few hours on Everest when disaster struck -- and the psychological complexity of surviving a tragedy. (HML08, $26.95)
Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History  •  Erik Larson  •  Isaac Monroe Cline HISTORY •  2000 •  PAPER  • 336 PAGES A history of the events and people -- and especially Isaac Cline, head of the National Weather Service -- surrounding the monumental storm that devastated Galveston in 1900. (TEX03, $14.95)
K2, Triumph and Tragedy  •  Jim Curran EXPLORATION •  1997 •  PAPER This is a tense account of disaster on the world's second highest mountain in 1986. The author was on the mountain when 13 climbers in 9 different expeditions died. (PKN05, $15.00)
The Last River, The Tragic Race for Shangri-La  •  Todd Balf TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2001 •  PAPER  • 293 PAGES A thrilling account of a first-ever descent of the Tsangpo Gorge in the heart of Tibet by four expert kayakers in 1998. (TBT44, $14.00)
Ordeal by Hunger, The Story of the Donner Party  •  George Rippey Stewart HISTORY •  1992 •  PAPER  • 392 PAGES Incidents of cannibalism always make for intriguing, if not morbid, true life tales, and the granddaddy of them all is the story of the Donner Party. This definitive volume fills in the details of that doomed voyage, drawing on diaries of the few surviving pioneers who struggled through the desert only to find themselves trapped in the snows of the Sierra Nevadas. Don't be deterred by the subject matter, this book is much more gripping than gruesome. (USW414, $14.95)
Plagues and Peoples  •  William McNeill HISTORY •  1998 •  PAPER  • 365 PAGES Wide-ranging, fascinating and well researched, this book traces the waves of epidemics that raged through Europe, particularly the famous Black Death of the 13th and 14th centuries. (EUR26, $15.95)
Rising Tide, The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America  •  John M. Barry HISTORY •  1998 •  PAPER  • 524 PAGES The Mississippi flood of 1927 was the greatest natural disaster in the history of the United States, killing thousands and forcing almost a million Southern residents out of their homes. This readable book tells the full story of the disaster and how it ultimately helped shape the nation we have today. It is a story of epic scope, delving deeply into the race relations, agriculture and politics of the time. (USS48, $17.00)
Through a Night of Horrors  •  Shelley Henley Kelley  •  Casey Edward Greene NATURAL HISTORY •  2000 •  HARD COVER  • 224 PAGES An extraordinary collection of letters, memoirs, and oral histories from the survivors of the catastrophic storm that hit Galveston in 1900 -- vividly detailed, poignant and touching. (TEX04, $24.95)
Titanic, A Survivor's Story and the Sinking of the S.S. Titanic  •  Archibald Gracie HISTORY •  1998 •  PAPER  • 365 PAGES An eyewitness account of the disaster -- vivid in its detail, well told and captivating. (OCE27, $14.95)
Wake of the Invercauld, Shipwrecked in the Sub-Antarctic: A Great-Granddaughter's Pilgrimage  •  Madelene Ferguson Allen EXPLORATION •  1997 •  HARD COVER  • 256 PAGES Robert Holding was one of only three young sailors to survive being shipwrecked in 1864 on the Auckland Islands south of New Zealand. This is his story of survival and exploration as told by his great-granddaughter who twice ventured to these remote shores to trace his fate. Allen interweaves her own research and travels to the region with excerpts from Holding's 19th-century diary of the shipwreck. With modern and archival photographs. (NZL31, $60.00)
The Worst Journey in the World  •  Apsley Cherry-Garrard EXPLORATION •  2006 •  PAPER  • 573 PAGES • FAVORITE One of the great tales of exploration, originally published in 1922. Cherry-Garrard's epic midwinter journey to the emperor penguin rookery is just a warm-up for the main event: his vivid account of Scott's doomed last expedition. This huge book, called the best adventure tale ever written, is well worth the effort. It was neighbor George Bernard Shaw, an early supporter of Cherry-Garrard, who bestowed the title. (ANT23, $18.00)