By Josh Neufeld

A.D. follows six ordinary people from the hours before Katrina struck to its horrific aftermath.

By Louis W. Kasischke
Recommended By Neela Vass, Head of Acquisitions

The story of one survivor from the fatally tragic 1996 Mt. Everest expedition.

By Tim Flannery

Twenty-five years ago, young Australian museum curator Tim Flannery set out to research the fauna of the Pacific Islands. He shares his accounts of discovering, naming, and sometimes eating new mammal species, being thwarted or aided by local customs, and undertaking historic scientific expeditions.

By Mark Bowden

Black Hawk Down is Mark Bowden’s brilliant account of the longest sustained firefight involving American troops since the Vietnam War. On October 3, 1993, about a hundred elite U.S. soldiers were dropped by helicopter into the teeming market in the heart of Mogadishu, Somalia. Their mission was to abduct two top lieutenants of a Somali warlord and return to base. It was supposed to take an hour. Instead, they found themselves pinned down through a long and terrible night fighting against thousands of heavily armed Somalis. The following morning, eighteen Americans were dead and more than seventy had been badly wounded.

Became the movie: Black Hawk Down.

By John Silverwood

When Californians John Silverwood and his wife Jean decided to take their four children on a sail around the world on their fifty-five-foot catamaran, Emerald Jane, they could not foresee the range of adventure that awaited them. The pressures of a family and a marriage in such cramped quarters were nothing compared to the terrifying forces of nature. But while in the South Pacific, just as it seemed to them that they had mastered every challenge, their world was shattered in a split second of unimaginable horror. Now the real test began, forcing them to fight for their very lives.

By James Campbell
Recommended By Neela Vass, Head of Acquisitions

The author describes his journey to the far reaches of Alaska with his teenage daughter where the harsh environment tested them and their relationship.

By Peter Gethers

“At one time, publisher and author Peter Gethers was a confirmed cat hater … THE CAT WHO WENT TO PARIS proves that sometimes all it takes is paws and personality to change a life (From the Publisher).”

By Tim Jarvis

Outfitted solely with authentic items from the time period, a leading explorer recounts his modern-day journey to retrace the perilous 1914 expedition of Sir Ernest Shackleton, a three-year Antarctic adventure that became one of the greatest stories of endurance and survival ever recorded.

By John Berendt

An intimate look at the magic, mystery and decadence of the city of Venice and its inhabitants.

By Paul Cornioley

Memoirs of the only female SOE agent to lead a French Resistance network during World War II.

By David W. Shaw

A portrait of Norwegian immigrants George Habo and Frank Samuelsen explores the lives of these first men to row across the Atlantic Ocean, their families, and their dreams and disappointments, through chronicles of their long and nearly fatal 1896 journey.

By Laurence Gonzales

After her plane crashes, a seventeen-year-old girl spends eleven days walking through the Peruvian jungle. Against all odds, with no food, shelter, or equipment, she gets out. A better equipped group of adult survivors of the same crash sits down and dies. What makes the difference? Through close analysis of case studies, author Laurence Gonzales describes the essence of a survivor and offers twelve "Rules of Survival." In the end, he finds, it is what's in your heart, not what's in your pack, that separates the living from the dead.

By Andy Hall
Recommended By Amy B., Children's Librarian

Draws on survivor testimonies, lost documents and radio communications to chronicle the harrowing 1967 Mount McKinley climbing tragedy involving the deaths of seven mountaineers.

By Edward J. Larson

Examines the pioneering Antarctic expeditions of the early twentieth century within the context of a larger scientific, social, and geopolitical context.

By Roald Dahl

As a young man working in East Africa for the Shell Company, Roald Dahl recounts his adventures living in the jungle and later flying a fighter plane in World War II.

By Reader's Digest

The world's great explorers, their triumphs and tragedies.

By Doug Stanton

“The definitive account of this harrowing chapter of World War II history-- In Harm’s Way is a classic tale of war, survival, and extraordinary courage (From the Publisher).”

By Nathaniel Philbrick
With Barney Levantino, Reference Librarian

Tuesday, June 14, 2016. 7:30 PM.

Recounts the story of the 1820 wreck of the whaleship Essex, which inspired Melville's classic Moby-Dick, and describes its doomed crew's ninety-day attempt to survive whale attacks and the elements on three tiny lifeboats.

Film Showing: Friday, June 17, 2016. 2 PM.

By Jon Krakauer
Recommended By Amy B., Children's Librarian

The story of Chris McCandless, a young man who embarked on a solo journey into the wilds of Alaska and whose body was discovered four months later, explores the fascinating allure that the wilderness has for the American imagination.

Became the movie: Into the Wild.

By Jon Krakauer
Recommended By Amy B., Children's Librarian

"Heroism and sacrifice triumph over foolishness, fatal error, and human frailty in this bone–chilling narrative in which the author recounts his experiences on an ill–fated, deadly climb. Thrilling armchair reading (From School Library Journal)."

By Erik Larson

An account of the September 8, 1900 hurricane in Galveston, Texas, which killed more than six thousand people and is noted as the worst natural disaster in American history, is presented from the records of U.S. Weather Bureau meteorologist Isaac Cline.

By Ed Viesturs
Recommended By Neela Vass, Head of Acquisitions

A first American mountaineer to have ascended all 14 of the world's 8,000-meter peaks explores the history of K2 as reflected by six dramatic climbing campaigns, describing the tragedies that have marked many attempts as well as his own near-fatal 1992 ascent.

By David Grann

Interweaves the story of British explorer Percy Fawcett, who vanished during a 1925 expedition into the Amazon, with the author's own quest to uncover the mysteries surrounding Fawcett's final journey and the secrets of what lies deep in the Amazon jungle.

By Jennifer Baggett

Three friends at a crossroads in their twenties quit their high pressure New York media jobs, leave their friends and everything familiar behind, and embark on a year-long backpacking adventure around the world.

By Ed Viesturs
Recommended By Neela Vass, Head of Acquisitions

The only American to have climbed all fourteen of the world's eight-thousand-meter peaks sets his sights on Mount Everest, in a work that combines his own climbs as well as narratives of famous climbs throughout the last century.

By Sebastian Junger

Presents a vivid account of a history-making storm that hit the New England coast in October 1991 and the lives it changed, weaving together the history of the fishing industry, the science of storms, and personal accounts.

Became the movie: The Perfect Storm.

By Simon Winchester
Recommended By Brenda Cherry, Reference Librarian

"A journalist who has written extensively about Asia and spent nine years in Hong Kong making frequent visits inland, Winchester is comfortable with the country's long, complex history and politics, and he writes about them with an easy grace that defies the usual picture of China as an enigma wrapped in a conundrum (From Publishers Weekly)."

By Candice Millard

Chronicles the 1914 expedition of Theodore Roosevelt into the unexplored heart of the Amazon basin to explore and map the region surrounding a tributary called the River of Doubt, detailing the perilous conditions they faced.

By Cate Linberry
Recommended By Jean Buchholtz, Library Clerk

“Recounts how the passengers and crew of an American medical evacuation plane, including thirteen nurses and thirteen medics, survived after it crashed in Nazi-controlled Albania in November, 1943, until they could be rescued (From the Publisher).”

By Michael Finkel
Recommended By Jackie, Head of Readers' Services, Neela Vass, Head of Acquisitions
With Jackie Ranaldo, Head of Readers' Services

Tuesday, April 24, 2018. 1:30 PM.

Documents the true story of a man who endured an isolated existence in a tent in the Maine woods, never speaking with others and surviving by stealing supplies from nearby cabins, for twenty–seven years, and illuminates the reasons behind his solitary life.

By Laurence Gonzales

Highlights the survivors of various traumas and describes their lives both before and after and offers a detailed discussion of the fear, courage and the flexibility of the spirit that drives people onward after a life-threatening experience.

By Ben Sherwood

“Sherwood travels worldwide to gain insight from people who have survived a slew of near fatal phenomena (Publishers Weekly Review).”

By Travis Mills

A retired paratrooper and one of the only five soldiers to have survived quadruple-amputee injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan, the author describes how his faith and his mantra of “never give up—never quit” has helped him rebuild his life since Afghanistan.

By Stephen E. Ambrose

A chronicle of the two–and–a–half year journey of Lewis and Clark covers their incredible hardships and the contributions of Sacajawea.

By Cheryl Strayed
Recommended By Meghan F., Children's Services Librarian , Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian, Neela Vass, Head of Acquisitions
With Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian

Tuesday, November 13. 7:30 PM.

A powerful, blazingly honest, inspiring memoir: the story of a 1,100 mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe - and built her back up again.

By Bonnie Rose Ward
Recommended By Neela Vass, Head of Acquisitions

Leaving behind friends, family, and life as they know it, the Wards embark on a journey into the Alaskan wilderness that will change them forever.