book recommendation

[shaveice]

while doing some stuff on my computer, the tv was playing in the background and it highlighted the heroism of people involved in a plane crash (i think it was in peru). just ordinary people who did great things in the midst of death and destruction.

it got me to thinking that it'd be cool to read a nonfiction book which contains a collection of stories illustrating the strength of the human spirit to rise above incredibly difficult circumstances.

so if you've read a book that matches the description above, i'd love to hear about it.

thanks.

[Tiabla]

I don't really know of any collections of courageous/heroic stories but the first thing that comes to mind is the classic Alive by Piers Paul Read:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/038000321X/sr=8-2/qid=1140462101/ref=pd_bbs_2/102-6723420-9651317?%5Fencoding=UTF8

It's about an Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashes in the Andes and they are forced to resort to cannibalism to survive. I'm not sure if that qualifies as pure heroism, but it's a heck of a story.

Also, I would recommend the show I Shouldn't Be Alive on Discovery. Lots of harrowing tales of people overcoming enormous odds to survive dangerous situations in hostile environments:

http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/alive/alive.html

Many of the stories featured on this show are based on books, including Deborah Scaling Kiley's Untamed Seas (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0618127275/qid=1140462534/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-6723420-9651317?s=books&v=glance&n=283155) and Jungle (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0977171906/qid=1140462636/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-6723420-9651317?s=books&v=glance&n=283155) by Yossi Ghinsberg.

For my money, one of the best tales of courage, heroism and leadership is the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton and The Endurance. There are quite a few books on this subject but I find Caroline Alexander's The Endurance (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375404031/qid=1140462733/sr=1-9/ref=sr_1_9/102-6723420-9651317?s=books&v=glance&n=283155) to be the best of the bunch. This is an amazing story and there are a couple of documentaries about the Shackleton expedition that are also worthwhile.

[Miulang]

Just finished reading a little book called "Looking Like the Enemy (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0939165538/sr=8-1/qid=1140473297/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-6069485-0599937?%5Fencoding=UTF8): My Story of Imprisonment in Japanese-American Internment Camps" by Mary Matsuda Gruenewald (New Sage Press, 2005).

It's a personal account of growing up in an internment camp, but it's more personal for me because I know the author. I always have known Mary for what she did in her professional life, but never did I ever imagine the psychological traumas she had to endure as a teenager who was born American but who was treated like she was an enemy simply on the basis of her ethnic heritage. Vashon Island, where she and her brother Yoneichi grew up, is in the middle of Puget Sound, about a 15-minute ferry ride from Seattle. I love that little island because it still looks like farmland. I cannot fathom how scary it must have been to be told that you had 8 days to figure out what you were going to do with your farm and how you were going to pack your life into 2 suitcases and head for a future behind barbed wire that you could not imagine. You had no idea where you were being taken, or how long you would be there.

In spite of it all, her brother enlisted in the 100th Battalion and was shipped off to Italy to fight the Germans (although until the day he died, he never could tell his family about what he experienced during his time in the Army), and she was one of the first Nisei women to become part of the Nursing Corps, and from there became a minister's wife and the founder of a consulting nurse's group which has become a model for many other similar healthcare services.

What's kind of interesting is that Mary notes that there was even a difference in attitude between the Japanese Americans who were born and raised in California and those who were born elsewhere on the Mainland; she said the California Issei and Nisei were more bitter about the internment than the internees from the Pacific NW, which is something I have never known.

The survivors of the internment camps even today are working to ensure that no other group of people in the United States ever has to be subjected to the dehumanizing and demoralizing conditions they endured for 4 years.

It's ironic also that Hawai'i had its own internment camp during WWII called Honouliuli (http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2006/Feb/05/ln/FP602050354.html), which is now mostly overgrown with tall grass and trees and at which there was last week a memorial service to honor the people who were kept there.

Reading about my friend Mary's life in the internment camp also brings home even more what our government is doing at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. Being put into prison merely because you look like the enemy is something that we as a free society cannot condone because if it happened once before, it most certainly can happen again in this country, IF WE ALLOW IT. :eek:

Miulang

[Linkmeister]

Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air," about the Everest expedition which ended with about a dozen deaths on a single day, has some heroics in it.

[shaveice]

cool. thanks everyone for your suggestions. it'll keep me busy for a while.

i've read alive and into thin air (great reads, both) and i look forward to reading the others.

vashon island? interesting. my wife and i enjoyed the buffalo burgers there!

[Linkmeister]

Miulang,
Nice story about San Diego internees and the librarian who was outraged by it here:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/features/20060219-9999-lz1c19breed.html

[sinjin]

while doing some stuff on my computer, the tv was playing in the background and it highlighted the heroism of people involved in a plane crash (i think it was in peru). just ordinary people who did great things in the midst of death and destruction.

it got me to thinking that it'd be cool to read a nonfiction book which contains a collection of stories illustrating the strength of the human spirit to rise above incredibly difficult circumstances.

so if you've read a book that matches the description above, i'd love to hear about it.

thanks.

I would recommend reading about Sir Ernest Shackleton.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375404031/104-6273505-9654316?v=glance&n=283155

[Linkmeister]

I would recommend reading about Sir Ernest Shackleton.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375404031/104-6273505-9654316?v=glance&n=283155

That's Alexander's book, as mentioned above. I didn't mention it when it was first recommended, but along with the story itself, the photographs are absolutely unbelievable.

[shaveice]

for those interested in a dvd format, amazon has this for sale:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000063TON/ref=reg_hu-wl_mrai-recs/102-5808946-4636169?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=130

the reviews are pretty positive and the extras seem to make the purchase worthwhile.

again, thanks for the recommendation :)