Survivor Stories on The Point

Our topic today was books about surviving in nature, from hurricanes to plane crashes to boat accidents to ice in the Arctic. Wow! Thanks for all the many calls and e-mails and the many book suggestions that we got this morning on The Point! Mindy, Vicky, and I were delighted to have so many great suggestions! Here is the complete book list, including titles that we didn’t have time for, but which we had in the studio with us. Miss the show? You can listen tonight at 7 PM on WCAI or listen online!

Mindy’s Picks

81 Days Below Zero by Brian Murphy

Anything by Michael Tougias

Vicky’s Picks

Appalachian Trail

*Lost on a Mountain in Maine by Donn Fendler

*Lost Trail: Nine Days Alone in the Wilderness by Donn Fendler – graphic novel based on the book.

*A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson. 

New England and at sea:

*A Wind to Shake the World: The Story of the 1938 Hurricane by Everett S. Allen

*In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick. 

The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea by Sebastian Junger

The Finest Hours: The True Story of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Most Daring Sea Rescue by Michael Tougias. 

*Adrift: 76 Days Lost at Sea by Steven Callahan

*Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. 

South America:

Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read

*Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle that Set Them Free by Hector Tobar. 

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann. 

Other Faraway Places:

*Tin Ticket: The Heroic Journey of Australia’s Convict Women by Deborah J. Swiss. 

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer

The Long Walk: the True Story of a Trek to Freedom by Slavomir Rawicz

Fiction: 

Breaking Wild by Diane Les Becquets

Two if by Sea by Jacquelyn Mitchard

Jill’s Picks

The Voyage of the Narwhal by Andrea Barrett

The Hurricane by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall

Adrift: seventy-six days lost at sea by Steven Callahan

Down Around Midnight: a memoir of crash and survival by Robert Sabbag

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

The Donner Party by George Keithley

Donner Dinner Party by Nathan Hale

The Real Story: a guide to nonfiction reading interests by Sarah Statz Cords

Not Enough Time For

Savage Summit: the true stories of the first five women who climbed K2 by Jennifer Jordan

Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs with an introduction by Thomas Mallon

Tom Brown’s Field Guide: wilderness survival by Tom Brown, Jr., with Brandt Morgan

The Ultimate Survival Manual: 333 skills that will get you out alive by Rich Johnson

Alive: the story of the Andes survivors by Piers Paul Read

Listener Picks

Papillon by Henri Charrière

Isaac’s Storm by Eric Larson

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

Lost in the Yellowstone by Truman Everts

No Picnic on Mount Kenya by Felice Benuzzi

One Hundred and Four Horses by Mandy Retzlaff

White Waters and Black by Gordon MacCreagh

Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner

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