Congratulations to Jackee Alston, winner of PRISONERS IN THE PALACE. Thanks again, Michaela, for providing a copy of your book.
I’m a huge fan of John Krakauer’s books INTO THIN AIR and INTO THE WILD.
Here are four other non-fiction adventure books I’d love to read (and one I can highly recommend):
#1
THE MAPMAKER’S WIFE: A TRUE TALE OF LOVE, MURDER, AND SURVIVAL IN THE AMAZON
From Publisher’s Weekly:
As was customary for girls from elite families in 18th-century colonial Peru, Isabel Gramesón was barely a teenager when she married Jean Godin, a Frenchman visiting the territory as an assistant on a scientific expedition. Planning to bring his wife back to France, Godin trekked across South America to check in with the French colonial authorities, but was refused permission to return up the Amazon back into Spanish territory to retrieve Isabel. So they remained a continent apart for 20 years until 1769, when Isabel started making her way east. Her party ran aground on the Bobonaza River (which feeds into the Amazon), and though almost everyone perished, she managed to survive alone in the rainforest for weeks.
#2
SELKIRK’S ISLAND
From Booklist:
This is an enthralling portrait of the man who was the source for Defoe’s most famous novel, Robinson Crusoe. Souhami employs a poetic style that instantly transports readers. They are taken back to a time, the heyday of British privateering on the high seas, and to an existential question–could I survive being marooned?
#3
MAROONED: THE STRANGE BUT TRUE ADVENTURES OF ALEXANDER SELKIRK, THE REAL ROBINSON CRUSOE
This is a winner!
From Booklist:
Gr. 5-8. This attractive little book offers the true survival story of the man who inspired Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe. In 1704, English sailing master Alexander Selkirk was marooned on Juan Fernandez, an isolated Pacific island. There he hunted seals, fashioned primitive tools, made clothes from goatskins, read his Bible, and made peace with his lot. In 1709, two English ships rescued him, hired him as a second mate, and later captured a Spanish treasure ship. Selkirk returned to London a wealthy man, though he never regained the peace of mind he had found on his island. Kraske offers a well-focused look at life in several quite different settings during the early eighteenth century as well as an absorbing telling of Selkirk’s story.
#4
A WALK ACROSS AMERICA
Product description:
Twenty-five years ago, a disillusioned young man set out on a walk across America. This is the book he wrote about that journey — a classic account of the reawakening of his faith in himself and his country.
#5
WALDEN
I have to confess, this has been on my reading list for far too long.
#5
WALDEN
I have to confess, this has been on my reading list for far too long.
Product Description:
First published in 1854, Henry David Thoreau’s groundbreaking book has influenced generations of readers and continues to inspire and inform anyone with an open mind and a love of nature. With Bill McKibben providing a newly revised Introduction and helpful annotations that place Thoreau firmly in his role as cultural and spiritual seer, this beautiful edition of Walden for the new millennium is more accessible and relevant than ever.
I just had a conversation with someone a couple weeks ago about Jon’s books. I added them to my TBR list.
Congrats to the winners!
Thanks for the book tips.
Congrats, Jackee.
Those sound fun. I’ve read excerpts from WALDEN but have never read the whole thing. I need to do that.
I don’t read a whole lot of non-fiction, but I’ve recently enjoyed several. THE GLASS CASTLE was one of my favorite books this year.
HOORAY!!! Thank you so much, Michaela and Caroline. :o) I’m so excited to read the book! And I never win anything… hence the huge smile on my face you can’t see through the blog comment. LOL!
I love Walden, it inspired me in so many ways as a teen. But now I have to read a couple others of these! My husband loved Into Thin Air and has been nudging me to read it for awhile. I think I might start there! :o)
Thanks again, ladies!
Jackee, congrats! You’ll love the book. I was telling Michaela as I read (emails back and forth) that I had read a book about George III’s daughters. In that book, Victoria was a little girl. It was fun to get a glimpse of her as a teen.
With your love of nature/science background, you absolutely must pick up these books!
Those sound great; thanks for the recommendation!
I love Krakauer. Into Thin Air is among my favorite books. I wasn’t thrilled with Into the Wild. I really, really wanted to love it, but I found all the characters a bit unlikable. I did like his book Under the Banner of Heaven, though.
I love non-fiction; I don’t read nearly enough of it. I loved Walden, but the rest of these I haven’t even heard of. They sound great. I’ll put some of them on my TBR list. Thanks for the suggestions!
Heidi, I liked UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN, too.
I am in reading Walden right now and loving it. Full of wisdom, though I might appreciate it more if Thoreau had children. Just a different ballgame altogether.
I had a lot of trouble with Walden until I eventually got a miniature edition (Shambhala). Turning a half-dozen pages every minute was really motivating. The first section is the toughest – once you get through that it’s all downhill. I am glad I finally read it in college, although unfortunately it was the third time (not the first or second) that it was required reading! Oops. Better late than never!