Good Reads

True Adventure

Calabro, Marian. The perilous journey of the Donner party.  

Uses materials from letters and diaries written by survivors of the Donner Party to relate the experiences of that ill-fated group as they endured horrific circumstances on their way to California in 1846-47. 

Callahan, Steven. Adrift:  seventy-six days lost at sea. 

The story of the only man in history to have survived more than a month alone at sea in an inflatable raft. 

Elder, Lauren and Streshinsky, Shirley. And I alone survived.

The breathtaking true story of a woman's triumph in the face of disaster.

Junger, Sebastian. The Perfect storm : a true story of men against the sea.  

The "Andrea Gail" was on its way home to Massachusetts.  Suddenly, it was caught in "the storm of the century", and tossed around by 100-foot waves in a bitter battle for survival. 

Krakauer, Jon.  Into thin air:  a personal account of the Mount Everest disaster.

McManners, Hugh. Complete wilderness training book. 

Teaches the necessary skills for living in the wild, from setting up camp to finding food, and from surviving a blizzard to signaling for help.

Paulsen, Gary.  Woodsong.

For a rugged outdoor man and his family, life in northern Minnesota is a wild experience involving wolves, deer, and the sled dogs that make their way of life possible.  Includes an account of the author's first Iditarod, a dogsled race across Alaska.

Philbrick, Nat. Revenge of the whale : the true story of the whaleship Essex.

Recounts the 1820 sinking of the whaleship "Essex" by an enraged sperm whale and how the crew of young men survived against impossible odds. Based on the author's adult book "In the Heart of the Sea.".  

Read, Piers Paul. Alive : the story of the Andes survivors.  

An account of the fear, tensions and practical problems the survivors of a plane crash in the Andes mountains had to face.  

Salisbury, Gay and Salisbury, Laney. The cruelest miles : the heroic story of dogs and men in a race against an epidemic.

The story of the 1925 Nome, Alaska, diphtheria epidemic describes the plight of the patients, with a blizzard imminent and the much-needed serum seven hundred miles away, as teams of sled dogs and their drivers become the only hope for survival. 

Sharp, Anne Wallace. Daring pirate women.

Profiles pirates throughout history, especially women pirates of Europe, America, and Asia, such as Princess Alvilda, Ingean Ruadh, Grany Imallye, Elizabeth Killigrew, Anne Bonny, and Lai Cho San. 

Storm, Rory. Castaway survivor's guide.  

Shows readers how to survive if they are unexpectedly cut off from civilization.