Best of
Survival

2004

Country Wisdom & Know-How: A Practical Guide to Living off the Land


M. John Storey - 2004
    Compiled from the information in Storey Publishing's landmark series of "Country Wisdom Bulletins," this book is the most thorough and reliable volume of its kind. Organized by general topic including animals, cooking, crafts, gardening, health and well-being, and home, it is further broken down to cover dozens of specifics from "Building Chicken Coops" to "Making Cheese, Butter, and Yogurt" to "Improving Your Soil" to "Restoring Hardwood Floors." Nearly 1,000 black-and-white illustrations and photographs run throughout and fascinating projects and trusted advice crowd every page.

The Final Frontiersman: Heimo Korth and His Family, Alone in Alaska's Arctic Wilderness


James Campbell - 2004
    Originally from Wisconsin, Heimo traveled to the Arctic wilderness in his twenties. Now, more than three decades later, Heimo lives with his wife and two daughters approximately 200 miles from civilization—a sustainable, nomadic life bounded by the migrating caribou, the dangers of swollen rivers, and by the very exigencies of daily existence. In The Final Frontiersman, Heimo’s cousin James Campbell chronicles the Korth family’s amazing experience, their adventures, and the tragedy that continues to shape their lives. With a deft voice and in spectacular, at times unimaginable detail, Campbell invites us into Heimo’s heartland and home. The Korths wait patiently for a small plane to deliver their provisions, listen to distant chatter on the radio, and go sledding at 44 degrees below zero—all the while cultivating the hard-learned survival skills that stand between them and a terrible fate. Awe-inspiring and memorable, The Final Frontiersman reads like a rustic version of the American Dream and reveals for the first time a life undreamed by most of us: amid encroaching environmental pressures, apart from the herd, and alone in a stunning wilderness that for now, at least, remains the final frontier.

Surviving the Extremes: What Happens to the Body and Mind at the Limits of Human Endurance


Kenneth Kamler - 2004
    A vice president of the legendary Explorers Club, as well as surgeon, explorer, and masterful storyteller, Dr. Kenneth Kamler has spent years discovering what happens to the human body in extreme environmental conditions. Divided into six sections—jungle, high seas, desert, underwater, high altitude, and outer space—this book uses firsthand testimony and documented accounts to investigate the science of what a body goes through and explains why people survive—and why they sometimes don’t.

Ultimate SAS Survival


John Wiseman - 2004
    From making camp and finding food in the wild to security and self-defence in the streets, be prepared on land or sea. SAS legend John ‘Lofty’ Wiseman’s unrivalled guide will teach you:Preparation – Understanding and assembling latest, most resilient, kit.Navigation – Skills, technologies and techniques to get you through unfamiliar terrain.Food and Health – Finding resources in your environment, feeding yourself, healing yourself and avoiding disease.Safety and Security – Recognising dangerous situations, defending yourself and saving others.Disaster Survival – Dealing with unstable environmental conditions: what to do in the face of flash flooding or fast-spreading fire.

Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival


Dean King - 2004
    Reader and protagonist alike are challenged into new ways of understanding culture clash, slavery and the place of Islam in the social fabric of desert-dwelling peoples.In a calm May morning in 1815, Captain James Riley and the crew of the Commerce left port in Connecticut for an ordinary trading voyage. They could never have imagined what awaited them. Their nightmare began with a dreadful shipwreck off the coast of Africa, a hair-raising confrontation with hostile native tribesmen within hours of being washed ashore, and a hellish confinement in a rickety longboat as they tried, without success, to escape the fearsome coast. Eventually captured by desert nomads and sold into slavery, Riley and his men were dragged along on an insane journey through the bone-dry heart of the Sahara—a region unknown to Westerners. Along the way the Americans would encounter everything that could possibly test them: barbarism, murder, starvation, plagues of locusts, death, sandstorms that lasted for days, dehydration, and hostile tribes that roamed the desert on armies of camels. They would discover ancient cities and secret oases. They would also discover a surprising bond between a Muslim trader and an American sea captain, men who began as strangers, were forced to become allies in order to survive, and, in the tempering heat of the desert, became friends—even as the captain hatched a daring betrayal in order to save his men. From the cold waters of the Atlantic to the searing Saharan sands, Skeletons on the Zahara is a spectacular odyssey through the extremes. Destined to become a classic among adventure narratives, Dean King's masterpiece is an unforgettable tale of survival, courage, and brotherhood.

Facing the Frozen Ocean: One Man's Dream to Lead a Team Across the Treacherous North Atlantic


Bear Grylls - 2004
    Five British men in an open, rigid inflatable boat fighting for their lives in perhaps the most dangerous seas in the world.

Alabama Moon


Watt Key - 2004
    I could find my way by the stars and make fire in the rain. Pap said he even figured I could whip somebody three times my size. He wasn't worried about me.For as long as ten-year-old Moon can remember, he has lived out in the forest in a shelter with his father. They keep to themselves, their only contact with other human beings an occasional trip to the nearest general store. When Moon's father dies, Moon follows his father's last instructions: to travel to Alaska to find others like themselves. But Moon is soon caught and entangled in a world he doesn't know or understand, apparent property of the government he has been avoiding all his life. As the spirited and resourceful Moon encounters constables, jails, institutions, lawyers, true friends, and true enemies, he adapts his wilderness survival skills and learns to survive in the outside world, and even, perhaps, make his home there.In this compelling, action-packed book, Watt Key gives us the thrilling coming-of-age story of the unique and extremely appealing Moon.Alabama Moon is a 2007 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

The Good Life: Up the Yukon Without a Paddle


Dorian Amos - 2004
    Having searched their world atlas they decided to sell up and move to Canada in pursuit of a better life. Having bought Pricey the car, Boris Lock their faithful dog, a canoe and their fishing equipment they set off into the Yukon Wilderness to find a place they could call home. After months of camping alone in the great outdoors—where they encountered bears and wild men of the mountains—they eventually arrived at Dawson City, home to one of the great gold rushes of the 20th century. It was here that they found a run-down log cabin in the mountains nearby and began a new and gratifying life. A life they had always known they wanted.

Izzy's Fire: Finding Humanity in the Holocaust


Nancy Wright Beasley - 2004
    All 13 Jews ended up living in a 9?x12?x4? underground hole as World War II raged around them. Some lived underground for about seven months before being liberated by the Russian Army. Dr. Michael Berenbaum, project director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (1988-1993) and author of The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust as Told in the United States Memorial Holocaust Museum, says, ?Izzy's Fire is filled with the passion of one woman determined to do justice to the story of another woman who lived in hiding throughout the war years. The war has soul. One feels the intensity of the struggle to survive. One senses the decency of those who were ready to rescue and the evil that haunted a mother and father and their young child in the dangerous world they lived......"

Cabin on Trouble Creek


Jean Van Leeuwen - 2004
    It's 1803, and the boys and their father have recently arrived in Ohio, following the promise of rich farmland. After clearing enough forest to build a log cabin, Pa sets off for Pennsylvania to fetch the rest of the family, while eleven-year-old Daniel and nine-year-old Will stay behind to watch the land. Pa had planned to return within five or six weeks . . . but something must have gone terribly wrong. Now the boys must survive the winter with only an axe, two knives, a sack of cornmeal, and&150most important of all&150their ability to invent and improvise. But are they truly alone in the woods? Daniel thinks that someone is watching them . . . Jean Van Leeuwen's engrossing novel of pioneer survival is based on a true incident. Readers, especially boys, will be fascinated by the struggles and triumphs of these brave young characters.

The Mountaineering Handbook: Modern Tools and Techniques That Will Take You to the Top


Craig Connally - 2004
    The Mountaineering Handbook will teach you the skills that will take you to the top. Even if you're already an experienced mountaineer, you'll find detailed descriptions of the newest and most effective techniques to refine and organize your methods and equipment. The Mountaineering Handbook isn't mired in outdated traditionalism; its new-school techniques are safer, more effective, and more fun for mountaineers at every level. With constant emphasis on light, fast, and efficient mountaineering, Craig Connally shows you how to:Move quickly up and down rock, snow, and ice with appropriate safety systemsManage mountain hazards, including rockfall, avalanche, lightning, and high-altitude illnessSelect the best equipment for your personal style and objectivesMaintain sound nutrition and training according to the most up-to-date scienceUnderstand the human factors of mountaineering--the social and psychological forces that influence critical decisionsConnally's passion for mountaineering is evident in his writing--The Mountaineering Handbook is clever, insightful, and entertaining. He intends to move mountaineering into the twenty-first century, but he's also determined to turn the traditional how-to book on its ear by injecting personality, humor, and thoughtfulness into every page.

Molon Labe! -- Come and Take Them!


Boston T. Party - 2004
    Government. Can a lone, courageous state successfully resist federal tyranny, or has the Bill of Rights been reduced to a myth? Can an allegedly free people act free, or is our liberty just a 4th of July farce? These issues weigh heavily on the shoulders of Governor James Wayne Preston, a decorated Desert Storm Marine helo pilot. Elected in 2014 on the Laissez-Faire Party ticket, he enjoys nearly full support of the legislature to return Wyoming to a long-lost era of liberty. But how far can he and the people of his state go before Washington, D.C. feels compelled to act? Will Wyoming's free and independent course reach actual secession? Will President Melvin Connor suppress the maverick Western state with federal troops? Will anybody come to Wyoming's aid? Molon Labe! is a fictional account of a real-world blueprint for a free state initiative focused on Wyoming. If enough freedom-loving individuals will relocate there under a useful pattern, they can "liberate" the Cowboy State on many levels. In Wyoming we could truly enjoy our rights of gun ownership, privacy, schooling, health and diet, unrestricted travel, and property. Boston shows us how it actually can be done!

U.S. Army Ranger Handbook


U.S. Department of Defense - 2004
    These highly-trained, easily-deployable, and widely-skilled infantrymen specialize in airborne assault, raids, recovery of personnel and equipment, and airfield seizure, among other difficult and dangerous missions. Drawing from over two centuries of bloody lessons learned in special operations combat, this guide gives modern soldiers the best advice possible. In straightforward language and a no-frills style, it covers deception, stealth, communications, escape and evasion, ambush operations, perimeter defense, counterintelligence, and much more. Handy and concise, this manual was designed so Rangers could easily carry it into the field. Now it is the ultimate resource for anyone who wants to know how Rangers think and work.

Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl


Myrna Warren - 2004
    

Inge: A Girl's Journey Through Nazi Europe


Inge Joseph Bleier - 2004
    But she soon finds herself one of a hundred Jewish children fleeing for their lives following Hitler's invasions of Belgium and France. For a time, in 1941 and 1942, it seems as if Inge and the others have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, as they find shelter through the Swiss Red Cross in an idyllic fifteenth-century French chateau. Inge even finds love there. But the rumors and horrors of the Holocaust are never far away, and eventually French gendarmes surprise the children, taking them from their protectors to a nearby transit camp. In their desperate attempts to escape, Inge and her boyfriend face unexpected life-and-death decisions - wrenching decisions that will haunt Inge for the rest of her life. manuscript, found after her death; David Gumpert has also drawn from Inge's personal letters, from the recollections of friends, relatives, and people who were with her in Europe, and from his own close relationship with his aunt. One of the most dramatic stories of Christian rescue of Jewish children during the Holocaust, Inge is at the same time a totally frank account of the life and feelings of a teenage girl struggling to survive the Holocaust on her own - and of how the effects of that experience reverberated through her life and on into the lives of her descendants. No matter how or why one reads it, Inge is a story of survival not soon to be forgotten.

Arrowhawk


Lola M. Schaefer - 2004
    Hawk flapped his wings and skimmed the earth. Then he beat his wings harder, rose, and flew over the trees. And straight as an arrow, Hawk soared into the wild.The story of an injured red-tailed hawk's survival and freedomA hungry red-tailed hawk sits near a fence post and devours his catch. Out of nowhere a poacher's arrow pierces his body, seriously injuring him and leaving him to fend for himself.This is the courageous true story of Arrowhawk-an endangered bird of prey who, with sheer determination and will, survives eight weeks in the wild with a poacher's arrow through his thigh and tail. Stunning illustrations capture his remarkable journey from peril and rescue to eventual freedom.  Arrowhawk is a 2005 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Sinking of the Eastland


Jay Bonansinga - 2004
    At once riveting and poignant, The Sinking of the Eastland brings to life a bygone era that yielded one of the most significant American disasters of the last century.

Zara's Tales: Perilous Escapades in Equatorial Africa


Peter H. Beard - 2004
    . . about Nairobi in the 1950s, still a quaint, eccentric pioneer town, full of characters of all stripes and tribes, where rhinoceros roamed the streets and local residents went to the movies in pajamas. He writes of the camp he built twelve miles outside of Nairobi so that he would never be off safari, a forty-acre patch of bush called Hog Ranch (abutting Karen Blixen’s plantation), named for the families of warthogs who wandered into camp, a camp populated with waterbuck, suni, dik-diks, leopard, giraffe, and occasionally lion and buffalo.In “Big Pig at Hog Ranch,” Beard tells the story of Thaka (translation from the Kikuyu: “handsome stud”), Hog Ranch’s number-one, fearsome, 300-pound warthog, who came into camp and dropped to the ground happy for a vigorous tummy rub, and who one night, “lying in his favorite position, munching on corn and barbeque chicken,” was encroached upon by a bristly haired, wild-looking boar hog. All three hundred pounds of Thaka exploded straight at the hairy intruder, the two brutish, bony heads crashing together thundering through the camp and Peter witnessed the unleashed power—the bullish strength—of the wild pig . . .In “Roping Rhino,” Beard tells of his first job in Africa, rounding up and relocating rhinos for the Kenya Game Department with his cohort and neighbor, a weather-beaten native of Old Kenya who thrived on danger and refused to bathe—and of the enormous silver-backed rhino bull that became their Moby Dick . . .He writes of his quest to photograph overpopulated and habitat-destroying elephants for Life magazine on the eve of Kenya’s independence . . . of his close encounter with the legendary man-eating lions of “Starvo” (descendants of the famed beasts rumored to be immune to bullets, who in the late nineteenth century halted the construction of the Mombasa railroad, devouring railroad workers and snatching sleeping passengers from their Pullman berths in the dead of night to make a meal of them), who charged the author, “coming in slow motion, like a bullet train erupting out of a tunnel, soundless, like an ancient force.” He tells of his round-the-clock adventure tracking and studying crocodiles with a game warden–biologist at Lake Rudolf, a tale that begins with one crewmember being grabbed from behind by a ten-foot crocodile and another doing battle with an almost prehistoric monster fish—a 200-pound Great Nile perch! . . . and he writes of the final wildlife encounter that ended his safari days, an incident that proved Karen Blixen’s motto: “Be bold, be bold . . . be not too bold.”Zara’s Tales confirms to our constant surprise and delight that “nothing out of the ordinary happens. It’s just Africa, after all.”

Photovoltaics: Design and Installation Manual


Solar Energy International - 2004
    But designing, installing and maintaining such systems requires knowledge and training, and there have been few easily accessible, comprehensive guides to the subject.Now, with Photovoltaics: Design and Installation Manual, a world-class solar energy training and education provider—Solar Energy International (SEI)—has made available the critical information to successfully design, install and maintain PV systems. The book contains an overview of photovoltaic electricity and a detailed description of PV system components, including PV modules, batteries, controllers and inverters. It also includes chapters on sizing photovoltaic systems, analyzing sites and installing PV systems, as well as detailed appendices on PV system maintenance, troubleshooting and solar insolation data for over 300 sites around the world. Used worldwide as the textbook in SEI’s PV Design & Installation workshops, topics covered include:The basics of solar electricityPV applications and system componentsSolar site analysis and mountingStand-alone and PV/generator hybrid system sizingUtility-interactive PV systemsComponent specification, system costs and economicsCase studies and safety issuesPhotovoltaics guarantees that those wanting to learn the skills of tapping the sun’s energy can do so with confidence.Solar Energy International (SEI) has the nonprofit mission to respond to the need for renewable energy education. Based in Carbondale, Colorado, and active around the world, SEI is a link between people and renewable energy resources, providing information, education and training to people who want to shape a sustainable future. SEI is recognized by the National Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP) as dedicated independent provider of PV training programs that may be used toward attaining PV certification. Also, SEI is recognized as an Accredited Institution to offer PV training by the Institute for Sustainable Power (ISP).

Tunnel King


Barbara Hehner - 2004
    Yet not many Canadians—least of all children—know the heroic story of Wally Floody, a Canadian airman imprisoned in Stalag Luft III, who was a key figure in digging a set of sophisticated tunnels. Now acclaimed children’s writer Barbara Hehner has penned a gripping action- adventure that tells Floody’s incredible story, and how he eventually became the consultant for the movie The Great Escape.    Packed with the kind of details kids love—like the fact that the prisoners built their own radios from empty cookie tins, or how the tunnels were shored up using 4,000 boards from the prisoners’ beds—The Tunnel King also provides an informative and dramatic Canadian context to the Second World War. Written in a lively style infused with Hehner’s obvious passion for her subject, this is a book that kids will devour.

Parenting the Ephraim's Child: Characteristics, Capabilities, and Challenges of Children Who Are Intensely More


Deborah Talmadge - 2004
    Ephraim's Children are also often high maintenance, emotional, and aggravating. This book examines the nine common characteristics with examples and real life stories to explain how each trait contributes to the challenge of raising an Ephraim's Child. Parents can understand and work with these temperamental traits, and then see how each is actually a strength in need of refinement.

The U.S. Army Leadership Field Manual


U.S. Department of the Army - 2004
    Army Leadership Field Manual has provided leadership training for every officer training program in the U.S. Army. This trade edition brings the manual's value-based leadership principles and practices to today's business world. The result is a compelling examination of how to be an effective leader when the survival of your team literally hangs on your decisions. More than 60 gripping vignettes and stories illustrate historical and contemporary examples of army leaders who made a difference.The U.S. Army Leadership Field Manual also provides:A leadership approach based on the army's core principles of "Be, Know, Do"Hands-on lessons to enhance training, mentoring, and decision-making skillsChapters that focus on the different roles and requirements for leadership

Lie in the Dark and Listen: The Remarkable Exploits of a WWII Bomber Pilot and Great Escaper


Ken Rees - 2004
    By age 21 Ken had already trained to be a pilot officer; flown 56 hair-raising bomber missions by night over Germany; taken part in the siege of Malta; got married; been shot down into a remote Norwegian lake; been captured and interrogated; sent to Stalag Luft III, survived the Great Escape and the forced March to Bremen. Truly a real-life adventure story, written with accuracy, pace and drama. In an age obsessed with C-list television celebrities battling it out on phoney reality survival shows, Rees and his dwindling band of Great Escapers stand out as the real thing. The Daily Telegraph Written in frank, warm and readable style, this is a very engaging account of a remarkable life. - New History A brave man s memory. Hear the fear yet take succour from the courage. North Wales Chronicle"

Saddam City


Mahmoud Saeed - 2004
    For the next fifteen months he witnesses countless scenes of torture as he himself is brutally interrogated, shuffled from prison to prison and barred from contacting his family.The question of his guilt or innocence clearly irrelevant, Mustafa must fight to retain a grip on reality. ‘How do I know that I am not dreaming this?’ he asks.Mahmoud Saeed’s devastating novel evokes the works of Kafka, Solzhenitsyn and Elie Wiesel in its account of wanton treatment by Saddam Hussein’s feared secret police. Narrated in a straightforward manner that makes it all the more vivid, Mustafa’s story testifies to the brutal arbitrariness of life under tyranny.Mahmoud Saeed was born in Mosul, Iraq, in 1938. In 1963 he was imprisoned on political charges for a year, to be followed by three years of suspension from employment. The detentions continued until his sixth and final incarceration in 1980. In 1985 Saeed emigrated to the United Arab Emirates, and since 1999 he has been a political refugee in the US. He has published nine books in Arabic and received many literary awards.

Pride Of The Sea


Tom Waldron - 2004
    - Pride of the Sea has been serialized in The Baltimore Sun and Chesapeake Life Magazine, and has been featured in the Washington Post, Maryland Daily Record, the Annapolis Capital, the Easton Star Democrat and the Towson Times.- Will captivate fans of such adventure-driven bestsellers as the Perfect Storm, Into Thin Air and Isaac's Storm.