Berlin-Peck Memorial Library: Adventure And Survival Books For This Winter

Press release from the Berlin-Peck Memorial Library:

BERLIN, CT — Some stories don’t just take you somewhere new—they drop you right into the wild and ask, now what?

Folks coping with the snow and cold of this difficult winter are, likely, in survival mode.

A recently released booklist from the Berlin-Peck Memorial Library, 234 Kensington Road, explores just that ... survival, with tales of adventure in both fiction and nonfiction formats.

Those accounts range from harrowing true accounts of endurance against the odds to imagined journeys where courage, ingenuity, and sheer stubbornness make the difference between life and death.

Fiction

Ascension

Nicholas Binge

A mind-bending speculative thriller in which the sudden appearance of a mountain in the middle of the Pacific Ocean leads a group of scientists to a series of jaw-dropping revelations that challenge the notion of what it means to be human.

North Of Nowhere

Allison Brennan

After five years in hiding from their murderous father, the day Kristen and Ryan McIntyre have been dreading has arrived: Boyd McIntyre, head of a Los Angeles crime family, has at last tracked his kids to a small Montana town and is minutes away from kidnapping them. They barely escape in a small plane, but gunfire hits the fuel line. The pilot, a man who has been raising them as his own, manages to crash land in the middle of the Montana wilderness.

Devolution
A Firsthand Account Of The Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

Max Brooks

As the ash and chaos from Mount Rainier’s eruption swirled and finally settled, the story of the Greenloop massacre has passed unnoticed, unexamined, until now. But the journals of resident Kate Holland, recovered from the town’s bloody wreckage, capture a tale too harrowing and too earth-shattering in its implications, to be forgotten. Because if what Kate Holland saw in those days is real, then we must accept the impossible. We must accept that the creature known as Bigfoot walks among us, and that it is a beast of terrible strength and ferocity.

All The Water In The World

Eiren Caffall

In the years after the glaciers melt, Nonie, her older sister and her parents and their researcher friends have stayed behind in an almost deserted New York City, creating a settlement on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History. The rule: Take from the exhibits only in dire need. They hunt and grow their food in Central Park as they work to save the collections of human history and science. When a superstorm breaches the city’s flood walls, Nonie and her family must escape north on the Hudson

Cold Snap

Marc Cameron

Stranded in the Alaskan wilderness with three violent prisoners, Supervisory Deputy US Marshal Arliss Cutter becomes the hunted in a desperate fight for survival.

The Troop

Nick Cutter

Once every year, Scoutmaster Tim Riggs leads a troop of boys into the Canadian wilderness for a weekend camping trip. This year, something is waiting in the darkness. Something wicked … An intruder stumbles upon their campsite like a wild animal.

Dead By Dawn

Paul Doiron

Maine game warden Mike Bowditch finds himself in a life-or-death chase in this new thriller from the bestselling mystery series by Edgar Award nominee Paul Doiron.

Haven

Emma Donoghue

Drifting out into the Atlantic, the three men find an impossibly steep, bare island inhabited by tens of thousands of birds, and claim it for God. In such a place, what will survival mean?

The River At Night

Erica Ferencik

Struggling with a soul-crushing job, a beloved sibling’s death and a divorce, Wini joins her friends on a hiking and rafting trip only to become stranded away from their survival gear and targeted by sinister rescuers who force the women to reconsider their loyalties and secrets.

Heartwood

Amity Gaige

In the heart of the Maine woods, an experienced Appalachian Trail hiker goes missing. She is forty-two-year-old Valerie Gillis, who has vanished 200 miles from her final destination. Alone in the wilderness, Valerie pours her thoughts into fractured, poetic letters to her mother as she battles the elements and struggles to keep hoping.

Isola

Allegra Goodman

Heir to a fortune, Marguerite is destined for a life of prosperity and gentility. Then she is orphaned, and her guardian—an enigmatic and volatile man—spends her inheritance and insists she accompany him on an expedition to New France. That journey takes a unexpected turn when Marguerite, accused of betrayal, is brutally punished and abandoned on a small island.

Raft Of Stars

Andrew J. Graff

Fleeing into the woods believing that they have accidentally murdered an abusive parent, two young boys, unaware that they have become the focus of a desperate search, navigate dangerous natural threats in their effort to survive.

Force Of Nature

Jane Harper

When one member of a five-woman team of co-workers goes missing during a corporate retreat, federal police agent Aaron Falk uncovers dark secrets in his search for the woman, a whistleblower and major contributor to his latest case.

The River

Peter Heller

Two college students on a wilderness canoe trip find their survival skills and longtime best friendship tested by a wildfire, white-water hazards and two mysterious strangers.

Cutting Edge

Ward Larsen

As a Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Alaska, Trey DeBolt enjoys a rewarding job with limitless adventure. His life is uprooted, however, when his helicopter goes down during a particularly harrowing rescue. Gravely injured, DeBolt awakens weeks later to severe headaches and a battered body. He remembers little about the crash. Most disconcerting of all are his surroundings–he is recovering, not in a hospital, but in a seaside cabin in Maine, thousands of miles from where the accident occurred.

Life Of Pi

Yann Martel

Life of Pi is at once a realistic, rousing adventure and a meta-tale of survival that explores the redemptive power of storytelling and the transformative nature of fiction. It’s a story, as one character puts it, to make you believe in God.

The Mountain Between Us

Charles Martin

Stranded in a frigid mountain wilderness after a plane crash, a gifted surgeon and a young magazine writer are forced to rely on each other for survival while confronting painful truths about their personal lives.

Wolves Of Eden

Kevin McCarthy

A saga of loyalty and survival in the vast, severe American West. Irish immigrant brothers Michael and Thomas O’Driscoll have returned from the brutal front lines of the Civil War. Unable to adapt to life as farm laborers, they reenlist in the army and are thrown into ferocious combat with Red Cloud’s coalition of Indian tribes in the heart of Montana’s Powder River Valley.

Migrations

Charlotte McConaghy

A woman who has dedicated her life to protecting the environment convinces a fishing captain and his salty crew to follow the world’s last flock of Arctic terns on a migration of dark revelations.

The Island

Adrian McKinty

When they discover remote Dutch Island, off-limits to outside visitors, the family talks their way onto the ferry, taking a chance on an adventure far from the reach of iPhones and Instagram. But as soon as they set foot on the island, which is run by a tightly knit clan of locals, everything feels wrong. Then a shocking accident propels the Baxters from an unsettling situation into an absolute nightmare.

Above The Fire

Michael O’Donnell

Doug and his son set out on a backpacking trip through the White Mountains of New Hampshire. But when reports of social collapse reach the ranger station, Doug withdraws even further into the backcountry. The alpine winter presents its own dangers, as father and son must endure the elements, the solitude, and the ever-present threat of outsiders.

Tilt

Emma Pattee

Annie is nine months pregnant and shopping for a crib at IKEA when a massive earthquake hits Portland, Oregon. With no way to reach her husband, no phone or money, and a city left in chaos, there’s nothing to do but walk. Making her way across the wreckage of Portland, Annie experiences human desperation and kindness: strangers offering help, a riot at a grocery store, and an unlikely friendship with a young mother. As she walks, Annie reflects on her struggling marriage, her disappointing career, and her anxiety about having a baby. If she can just make it home, she’s determined to change her life.

The Wind Is Not A River

Brian Payton

Following the death of his younger brother in Europe, journalist John Easley is determined to find meaning in his loss. Leaving behind his beloved wife, Helen, he heads north to investigate the Japanese invasion of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, a story censored by the U.S. government. While John is accompanying a crew on a bombing run, his plane is shot down over the island of Attu. He survives only to find himself exposed to a harsh and unforgiving wilderness, known as “the birthplace of winds.”

The Revenant

Michael Punke

In this story of survival, Hugh Glass is an expert trapper and frontiersman. After being viciously mauled by a massive grizzly bear and abandoned and left for dead by his fellow trappers, Hugh is pushed to survive by one thing –revenge.

Project Hail Mary

Andy Weir

The sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission to save both humanity and the earth, Ryland Grace is hurtled into the depths of space when he must conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

Memoir and Non-Fiction

The Salt Path

Raynor Winn

A true story of a couple who lost everything follows Raynor and Moth Winn, as they, after learning that Moth is terminally ill and their farm and house are taken away, embark on a remarkable and life-affirming journey walking the 630-mile South West Coast Path in England.

A Marriage At Sea
A True Story Of Love, Obsession, And Shipwreck

Sophie Elmhirst

A Marriage at Sea tells the true story of Maurice and Maralyn, an unlikely couple who abandon ordinary life to sail the world–only to face disaster when a whale sinks their boat in the Pacific. Stranded in a raft with little hope of rescue, they battle starvation, the elements, and each other in a gripping tale of survival, obsession, and the limits of love.

A Walk In The Park
The True Story Of A Spectacular Misadventure In The Grand Canyon

Kevin Fedarko

From the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of the epic adventure tale The Emerald Mile comes the most dramatic and deeply moving account ever of walking the Grand Canyon, a highly dangerous, life-changing 750-mile trek.

The Lost City Of Z
A Tale Of Deadly Obsession In The Amazon

David Grann

In 1925 Fawcett ventured into the Amazon to find an ancient civilization. For centuries Europeans believed the world’s largest jungle concealed the glittering El Dorado. Thousands had died looking for it, leaving many convinced that the Amazon was truly inimical to humankind. But Fawcett had spent years building his scientific case. Captivating the imagination of millions, he embarked with his 21-year-old son, determined to prove that this ancient civilization–which he dubbed “Z”–existed.

The Wager
A Tale Of Shipwreck, Mutiny, And Murder

David Grann

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon and The Lost City of Z, a mesmerizing story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth.

After The North Pole
A Story Of Survival, Mythmaking, And Melting Ice

Erling Kagge

A memoir from the Norwegian explorer recounts his 58-day ski journey to the North Pole, offering a gripping adventure story and a deep reflection on nature, human resilience and the profound significance of this remote region.

Into Thin Air
A Personal Account Of The Mount Everest Disaster

Jon Krakauer

Into Thin Air is the definitive account of the deadliest season in the history of Everest by the acclaimed journalist and author of the bestseller Into the Wild.

Into The Wild

Jon Krakauer

A true story expanded from Krakauer’s article about a young man who starved to death in Denali National Park in Alaska. In a compelling book that evokes the writings of Thoreau, Muir, and Jack London, Krakauer recounts the haunting and tragic mystery of 22-year-old Chris McCandless who disappeared in April 1992 into the Alaskan wilderness in search of a raw, transcendent experience. His emaciated corpse was discovered four months later.

Endurance
Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage

Alfred Lansing

This astonishing tale of survival by Shackleton and all twenty-seven of his men for over a year on the ice-bound Antarctic seas, as Time magazine put it, “defined heroism.” Alfred Lansing’s brilliantly narrated book has long been acknowledged as the definitive account of the Endurance’s fateful trip.

Girl In The Woods

Aspen Matis

Girl in the Woods is Aspen Matis’s exhilarating true-life adventure of hiking from Mexico to Canada- a coming of age story, a survival story, and a triumphant story of overcoming emotional devastation.

The Impossible First
From Fire To Ice–Crossing Antarctica Alone

Colin O’Brady

Colin O’Brady’s awe-inspiring memoir spans his triumphant recovery from a tragic accident to his gripping 932-mile solo crossing of Antarctica.

Miracle In The Andes
72 Days On The Mountain And My Long Trek Home

Nando Parrado

A harrowing, moving memoir of the 1972 plane crash that left its survivors stranded on a glacier in the Andes—and one man’s quest to lead them all home.

Icebound
Shipwrecked At The Edge Of The World

Andrea Pitzer

The most astonishing survival tale of all might be that of 16th-century Dutch explorer William Barents and his crew of sixteen, who ventured farther north than any Europeans before and, on their third polar exploration, lost their ship off the frozen coast of Nova Zembla to unforgiving ice. The men would spend the next year fighting off ravenous polar bears, gnawing hunger, and endless winter.

Madhouse At The End Of The Earth
The Belgica’s Journey Into The Dark Antarctic Night

Julian Sancton

The harrowing true survival story of an early polar expedition that went terribly awry-with the ship frozen in ice and the crew trapped inside for the entire sunless, Antarctic winter-in the tradition of David Grann, Nathaniel Philbrick, and Hampton Sides.

Graveyard Of The Pacific
Shipwreck And Survival On America’s Deadliest Waterway

Randall Sullivan

A vivid portrait of the Columbia River Bar that combines maritime history, adventure journalism, and memoir, bringing alive the history–and present–of one of the most notorious stretches of water in the world.

Buried In The Sky
The Extraordinary Story Of The Sherpa Climbers On K2’s Deadliest Day

Peter Zuckerman, Amanda Padoan

In August 2008, when eleven climbers lost their lives on K2, the world’s most dangerous peak, two Sherpas survived. They had emerged from poverty and political turmoil to become two of the most skillful mountaineers on earth. Based on unprecedented access and interviews, Buried in the Sky reveals their astonishing story for the first time.

Lost In Shangri-La
A True Story Of Survival, Adventure, And The Most Incredible Rescue Mission Of World War II

Mitchell Zuckoff

Award-winning former Boston Globe reporter Mitchell Zuckoff unleashes the exhilarating, untold story of an extraordinary World War II rescue mission, where a plane crash in the South Pacific plunged a trio of U.S. military personnel into the jungle-clad land of New Guinea.

This press release was produced by the Berlin-Peck Memorial Library. The views expressed here are the author’s own.