True Survival

Step into Chicago during the 1960s and ’70s, when mobsters influence everyone from strip-club owners to Teamsters, aldermen, judges, and local police. It is a world where good men are corrupted by the irresistible lure of money and power and families are shattered by lies, violence, and tragedy.

In May 2016, Fort McMurray, the hub of Canada’s oil industry and America’s biggest foreign supplier, was overrun by wildfire. The multi-billion-dollar disaster melted vehicles, turned entire neighborhoods into firebombs, and drove 88,000 people from their homes in a single afternoon. Through the lens of this apocalyptic conflagration—the wildfire equivalent of Hurricane Katrina—John Vaillant warns that this was not a unique event, but a shocking preview of what we must prepare for in a hotter, more flammable world.

December 13, 1920. It was a typical Monday morning when three US Navy officials boarded a hot-air balloon for an easy, routine training flight. But as evening came, heavy rain and wind knocked Lieutenants Louis Kloor, Stephen Farrell, and Walter Hinton off course, eventually forcing a crash landing deep within the snowy Canadian wilderness. As the men searched for salvation, they were overcome by freezing temperatures, starvation, and fatigue. To survive this harrowing experience, the brave military officers would have to go up against their greatest enemies yet.

In 1839 rumors of extraordinary yet baffling stone ruins buried within the unmapped jungles of Central America reached two of the world's most intrepid travelers. Seized by the reports, American diplomat John Lloyd Stephens and British artist Frederick Catherwood sailed together out of New York Harbor on an expedition into the forbidding rainforests of present-day Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico. What they found would rewrite the West's understanding of human history.

The shocking first true account from one of the young girls who lived through and survived the Rotherham sex abuse scandal. In the summer of 2014, the Rotherham sex abuse scandal sent shockwaves through the nation. A report revealed that since the 1990s, up to 1,400 young girls in the town had been regularly abused by sex gangs, predominantly comprised of Pakistani men.

Aged just seven, Suzanne Heywood set sail with her parents and brother on a three-year voyage around the world. What followed turned instead into a decade-long way of life, through storms, shipwrecks, reefs and isolation, with little formal schooling. No one else knew where they were most of the time and no state showed any interest in what was happening to the children. Suzanne fought her parents, longing to return to England and to education and stability. This memoir covers her astonishing upbringing.

From Robinson Crusoe and The Swiss Family Robinson to Alive! and Adrift, tales of survival have captivated readers. Here are the most remarkable stories imaginable of maroons, castaways, and other survivors from the 1500s to the present: their moral dilemmas, their personalities, and their influence on society, literature, and art.

The shark attacked while she was snorkeling, tearing through Micki Glenn’s breast and shredding her right arm. Her husband, a surgeon, saved her life on the spot, but when she was safely home she couldn’t just go on with her life. She had entered an even more profound survival journey: the aftermath. The survival experience changes everything because it invalidates all your previous adaptations, and the old rules don’t apply. In some cases survivors suffer more in the aftermath than they did during the actual crisis. In all cases, they have to work hard to reinvent themselves.

Only four men survived the plane crash. The pilot. A politician. A cop... and the criminal he was shackled to. On an icy night in October 1984, a commuter plane carrying nine passengers crashed in the remote wilderness of northern Alberta. Four survived: the rookie pilot, a prominent politician, a cop, and the criminal he was escorting to face charges. As the men fight through the night to stay alive, the dividing lines of power, wealth, and status are erased, and each man is forced to confront the precious and limited nature of his existence.

Relli, a Jewish girl in Poland, was denied a normal childhood. When Relli was just a baby, the Nazis occupied Poland and she, together with her parents, were imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto, a way station before death. Her parents correctly assessed the new situation and decided to act heroically in order to save their only child. They succeeded in smuggling her out of the Ghetto and entrusted her to a Gentile Polish couple who agreed to hide her for the duration of the war under a false identity.

Have you ever noticed that you attract the same type of person again and again and wonder why? Would you like to understand the elements that are driving this attraction and fueling this frustrating, toxic cycle? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, keep reading! Explore this groundbreaking audiobook that finally uncovers the reasons why empaths and narcissists are so irresistibly drawn to each other, and the ways that, armed with the truth, you and others can finally break the cycle and avoid these relationships in the future.

Capturing history was Jonathan Alpeyrie's job, but he never expected to become a news story himself. For a decade, the French-American photojournalist weaved in and out of over a dozen conflict zones. But, during his third assignment to Syria, Alpeyrie was betrayed by his fixer and handed over to a band of Syrian rebels. For 81 days, he was bound, blindfolded, and beaten. Over the course of his captivity, Alpeyrie kept his spirits up and strived to see, without his camera lenses, the humanity in his captors.

In the spring of 1944 gendarmes forcibly removed Tibor “Max” Eisen and his family from their home, brought them to a brickyard, and eventually loaded them onto crowded cattle cars bound for Auschwitz-Birkenau. At 15 years of age, Eisen survived the selection process and he was inducted into the camp as a slave laborer. More than 70 years after the Nazi camps were liberated by the Allies, By Chance Alone details Eisen’s story of survival.

“The Girl Nobody Wants” is a gripping and poignant book that delves into the harrowing reality of child abuse. Lily O’Brien, courageously shares her own tragic experiences' shedding light on the dark corners of her past. The Girl Nobody Wants is a Shocking True Story of Child Abuse in Ireland. On my 40th birthday, I stand before the mirror a mere shell of a person, waiting for life to slip away. To everyone I appear clean, tidy, and perhaps even happy, a skill I've perfected over the years. But behind my smile lies a lifetime of hidden pain. This is the raw, emotional account of an ...

In the tradition of Into the Wild comes an instant classic of outdoor literature, a riveting work of uncommon depth. I’m planning on doing four days in the jungle.... It should be difficult to get lost forever: These were the haunting last words legendary adventurer Roman Dial received from his son, before the 27-year old disappeared into the jungles of Costa Rica. This is Dial's intensely gripping and deeply moving account of his two-year quest to unravel the mystery of his son's fate.

I Shouldn’t Have Survived A Modern Horror Anthology They knocked. I answered. They watched. I waved. They waited… and I stayed. Ten chilling survivor stories. Ten doors you should never open. In this razor-sharp anthology of modern horror, victims recount the unexplainable—and barely escape. Each story is told in haunting first-person detail, plunging you into a world where terror hides in the ordinary: an unlocked apartment, a mirror that fogs from the wrong side, a knock that keeps perfect time, or a window that shouldn’t be there. From forgotten rooms to cursed signals, parasitic...

Discover the art and science of finding your way in the great outdoors with "True North" - your ultimate guide to mastering wilderness navigation. Venture beyond the beaten path and tap into a source that illuminates the intricacies of trekking through diverse terrains and decoding the secrets of the natural world. Transport yourself into the heart of nature in Chapter 1, where you'll begin your journey understanding the call of the wild and preparing your mind for the adventures that lie ahead. Unveil the wonders of various landscapes as you immerse yourself in the study of biomes, weather...

When blood won’t stop, every second counts. Medical Mysteries – They Just Bled explores 20 shocking real-world cases of people who began bleeding suddenly, mysteriously, and sometimes fatally. From patients who bled from their eyes or skin without injury, to hidden ruptures, clotting failures, and catastrophic reactions to everyday medications, these are true accounts of medical chaos that defied expectations. A man dies from a nosebleed that reveals undiagnosed leukemia A woman bleeds internally after a simple cough ruptures a hidden vessel A child’s bruises reveal hemophilia that ...

From the star of Bravo’s hit reality show Below Deck comes the “Stud of the Sea”'s first-ever memoir recounting his journey from landlocked Saginaw, Michigan to the high seas, where he has spent more than 25 years as a superyacht captain. You don’t have to be one of Below Deck’s 1.5 million weekly viewers to appreciate Captain Lee’s story, which offers a glimpse behind-the-scenes at the luxury yachting industry and one of Bravo’s biggest franchises.

When a forty-seven-foot sailboat disappears in the Gulf Stream in the throes of a disastrous storm, it leaves behind three weary passengers struggling to stay alive. This middle-grade adaptation of an adult nonfiction book tells the story of the four intrepid Coast Guardsmen who braved this ruthless storm in the hopes of saving them. A spellbinding tale of courage and survival from the author of The Finest Hours.