Endurance, Alfred Lansing

• Subtitled, Shackleton's Incredible Voyage...First off, there are a lot of books about the Shackleton expedition, and this is the only one I've read and can recommend. It has a forward by James Dobson, and is recommended as an inspirational story and a "metaphor of the Christian experience." Shackleton and other members of the expedition have their own books published. This book is a mixture of journals and other research woven together. It is as suspenseful as the best novel you've ever read.

• Ernest Shackleton was an explorer who took a crew of men and dogs from England to the Antarctic with the goal of reaching the south pole, I believe. The goal doesn't matter because they shipwreck so far away from their mark that the rest of the story is of their struggle to survive the worst possible place on earth to be shipwrecked. Many times, you wonder how you can be reading the story because surely these men didn't live to tell the tale. It's hard not to pity them for surviving. It is amazing and sobering how much suffering the human body can endure, and how strong the will is to live, even when the only option is living miserably.

• I don't know if this story is a metaphor, but it is surely an example of the impossible coming to pass. If you've ever hoped for something that seemed impossible, or prayed a prayer that seemed to much to ask, this story will remind you that anything, is possible. My advice is to read this story during the dead of winter to maximize the effects of the freezing wind, barking sled dogs, the noise of a ship crashing through antarctic ice, and the rocking sensation of camping out on an ice floe. Reading this book made me cold, but the ending is really, really good.

Lost in the Amazon, Stephen Kirkpatrick

Stephen Kirkpatrick is a career wildlife photographer - a mix of adventure, danger, misery, and big-time rewards if you succeed.

In this story, Stephen optimistically makes a poorly planned, highly adventerous trek into the Peruvian Amazon jungle to get some once-in-a-lifetime photos that will hopefully be that big break in his career. He has a team of guides, and they have maps. He is thrilled to encounter unknown species and uncharted territory, but somehow they walk right off the map into a seemingly inescapable place called "lost."

He describes the feeling of separation from the entire world so that you understand what he went through mentally. It's scary, even for a moment, to glance around and realize you've lost your bearings. He has that feeling for miles and miles, plus being a million miles away from civilization and his young sons.

He also brings you to feel the misery of the invasive heat and constant moisture. The humidity seems to seep out of the book and smother the reader. And he is babysitting hi-tech camera equipment in a place where,"If the heat, the bugs, and the starvation didn't kill you out-right, the mold would do it, one inch at a time." It's ironic that a place so lush and dense with life is a killer if you aren't prepared to be in it. Somewhere along the line, he realizes that "Christians die just like everyone else," and he is forced to rely on God to help them get out. At times, you just have to hang on to the fact that he wrote the book, so he must have survived.

Two images stick with me. 1. The team walking for hours, chest deep in a smelly, murky bog, carrying equipment over their heads. That is my fear of water on steroids! I would have died and decomposed sooner than go knee-deep... 2. Forcing himself to drink straight from a wild stream. Parasites aren't funny.

What makes this story a keeper for me is Stephen's passion for God's creation. I witnessed the edges of the jungle in Panama, and it's 'something fierce' but also awe-inspiring. Being inside it would be overwhelming. When I hear the Newsboys line "So much wonder/shaded by ancient trees..." I can't help but visualize this type of scene: massive vine-covered trees with sunlight filtering down in thin strands. Stephen describes the experience of the darkness, the lights, colors, sounds, strange animals and exotic flowers, and even lets you visualize some of his awesome photos that never made it home. With words, he has packaged up an extreme experience for people like me to enjoy - people who would rather curl up with a latte and read all about it.

After reading Lost in the Amazon, I've been following his website http://www.kirkpatrickwildlife.com/. I haven't bought into his photography (yet), but Romancing the Rain is one of those books I keep meaning to buy. His photography is truly excellent - 100% full of awesome pictures I could never hope to take. I hope he'll recieve all the recognition he deserves in his field of work.

Miracle in the Andes, Nando Parrado

• After reading "Alive," I looked up Nando's story, written 30 years after the disaster. I was surprised by the impact of this book because I had just read the factual account, "Alive". But there was no feeling of repetition. If you've ever felt true panic, that is what Nando experienced nearly every moment for 72 days. This book places the reader "inside Nando's skull" and "in his rugby shoes, on the frozen slopes he was certain would be his grave." The emotions and philisophical questions raised here are profound.
• Nando doesn't believe in the 'conventional' idea of God, although he remains Catholic to this day. He was one of the strongest heroes because he summited a mountain and walked 45 miles through the Andes without climbing gear. He decided a million times over to suffer a little longer through the cold "as painful as fire." He got a rescue team, but he degrades his own courage saying because he was so overtaken by fear at the time. He was more afraid of dying at the crash site, so he left to get help, and became convinved that he would die trying. He likened it to jumping out of a burning building - choosing one death over another. He doesn't accept that prayers helped him get out of the mountains either, although he calls it a miracle.
• On his trek out, he summited the 17,000 ft. mountain and was devestated to see no farmers' fields, but just miles upon miles of more mountains. He writes, "In that moment all my dreams, assumptions, and expectations of life evaporated into the thin Andean air. I had always thought that life was the actual thing, the natural thing, and that death was simply the end of living. Now, in this lifeless place, I saw with a terrible clarity that death was the constant, death was the base, and life was only a short, fragile dream. I was dead already. I had been born dead, and what I thought was my life was just a game death let me play as it waited to take me."
• He ends his story by bringing it current, to his loving wife and family, and also gives a brief update on all the other survivors. The sixteen have a lifelong bond and many are close friends. They occasionally visit the graves at the crash site, and even keep up with the Chilean peasant who was their first outside contact. With all those memories to deal with, Nando's father counseled him just days after the rescue that he not let the plane crash be the most important thing that ever happened to him. In one way, Nando is gifted to know how just how fragile and special life is. He ends with a strong message to savor every moment of this precious gift: "Live every moment. Do not waste a breath."

Alive, Piers Paul Read

My boss recommended this book to me, and I confess that I read it because it sounded sensational. The story is a Uruguayan rugby team who charters a flight over the Andes mountains into Chile. They crash in Argentina at 12,000 feet. Most of the 40+ passengers die of injuries and infections. Sixteen live to the end of the book; all of them were forced to eat the flesh of their dead friends. Incidentally, I started reading this on a bad (horrible, no good...) day, and it momentarily helped me keep my problems in perspective. The book is developed from extensive interviews taken within a year of the rescue. There are some areas of TMI, and yes, it gets gory. If you have a "morbid fascination" you'll be okay. If you get grossed out, skip it. Since the media arrived almost before the rescuers did, this book needed to be written to tell the story with respect for what these men suffered, and not just to take advantage of a media sensation. This book is a reality check - the "heroes" were scared to death. They didn't conquer the mountain or cheat death. They fought and cursed each other at times, but moments later would apologize. This book held my attention on every page, but I read it so quickly that I couldn't keep track of all those names. I missed some of the continuity of individual people's stories, but I got a good feel for the big picture. Now, go read my entry about "Miracle in the Andes" By Nando Parrado, a survivor who told the story in his own words.