August books

I know this is very late. Sorry. The books I have chosen are... Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston, Confessions of a Hero Worshiper by Steven J. Dubner. I was planning on going with Bethany Hamiltons Soul Surfer but I thought it was too easy a read, she was only 13 when she lost her arm so compared to Aron Ralston her book just wasn't as interesting. I thought I'd add abook Alex recommended to me Untamed Seas by Deborah Scaling Kiley I have not read this yet but she has. I loved both the Aron Ralston book and the Steven J. Dubner book. There is a little language in Aron Ralstons book but not excessive.



Confessins of a Hero-Worshiper



As a boy, Stephen J. Dubner's hero was Franco Harris, the famed and mysterious running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers. When Dubner's father died, he became obsessed -- he dreamed of his hero every night; he signed his school papers “Franco Dubner.” Though they never met, it was Franco Harris who shepherded Dubner through a fatherless boyhood.
Twenty years later, Dubner, an accomplished writer, sees Harris on a magazine cover. His long-dormant obsession comes roaring back. He journeys to Pittsburgh, certain that Harris will embrace him. And he is...well, wrong.
Told with the grit of a journalist and the grace of a memoirist, Confessions of a Hero-Worshiper is a breathtaking, heartbreaking, and often humorous story of astonishing developments. It is also a sparkling meditation on the nature of hero worship -- which, like religion and love, tells us as much about ourselves as about the object of our desire.

printed 2004-272 pages



Untamed Seas

One late autumn day in 1982, the fifty-eight-foot yacht TRASHMAN set sail on a routine trip from Annapolis to Florida, with Deborah Scaling and four others aboard. When the boat sailed into a seventy-knot gale, it went down quickly, leaving the crew adrift in the Atlantic in a rubber dinghy that was quickly surrounded by sharks. Five harrowing days and nights later, when a Russian freighter finally came to their rescue, only two crew members remained. Powerful, adrenaline-charged, utterly consuming, UNTAMED SEAS is a brave, unforgettable story that plunges to the depths of the human psyche and surfaces with the strength to survive.



printed 2001 - 256 pages



Between A Rock and A Hard Place


One of the most extraordinary survival stories ever told -- Aron Ralston's searing account of his six days trapped in one of the most remote spots in America, and how one inspired act of bravery brought him home.
It started out as a simple hike in the Utah canyonlands on a warm Saturday afternoon. For Aron Ralston, a twenty-seven-year-old mountaineer and outdoorsman, a walk into the remote Blue John Canyon was a chance to get a break from a winter of solo climbing Colorado's highest and toughest peaks. He'd earned this weekend vacation, and though he met two charming women along the way, by early afternoon he finally found himself in his element: alone, with just the beauty of the natural world all around him.
It was 2:41 P.M. Eight miles from his truck, in a deep and narrow slot canyon, Aron was climbing down off a wedged boulder when the rock suddenly, and terrifyingly, came loose. Before he could get out of the way, the falling stone pinned his right hand and wrist against the canyon wall.
And so began six days of hell for Aron Ralston. With scant water and little food, no jacket for the painfully cold nights, and the terrible knowledge that he'd told no one where he was headed, he found himself facing a lingering death -- trapped by an 800-pound boulder 100 feet down in the bottom of a canyon. As he eliminated his escape options one by one through the days, Aron faced the full horror of his predicament: By the time any possible search and rescue effort would begin, he'd most probably have died of dehydration, if a flash flood didn't drown him before that.
What does one do in the face of almost certain death? Using the video camera from his pack, Aron began recording his grateful good-byes to his family and friends all over the country, thinking back over a life filled with adventure, and documenting a last will and testament with the hope that someone would find it. (For their part, his family and friends had instigated a major search for Aron, the amazing details of which are also documented here for the first time.) The knowledge of their love kept Aron Ralston alive, until a divine inspiration on Thursday morning solved the riddle of the boulder. Aron then committed the most extreme act imaginable to save himself.
Between a Rock and a Hard Place -- a brilliantly written, funny, honest, inspiring, and downright astonishing report from the line where death meets life -- will surely take its place in the annals of classic adventure stories.
printed 2004 - 354 pages