I’ve been fascinated by wild and lonely places since early childhood. Growing up in a small village, there were plenty to choose from. Foraging and an interest in the medicinal properties of plants grew out of that fascination, and later brought me to survival guides and the concept of survival itself. Hostile places, historical skills, and wilderness experiences all have a hold over my imagination. The notion of being prepared for humanity’s decline is something I find endlessly intriguing. Can such a thing be prepared for? What form will our destruction take and how does this affect the methods we need to survive it? I’ll probably keep reading and writing about it until we have an answer.
A non-fiction account of one office worker’s yearlong attempt to survive in Alaska. As someone who finds non-fiction quite dry and hard to read, this book is the best of both worlds. It has the detail of a true account with the wit and humor of fictional story. This book gives me something that former SAS professionals and hardened explorers cannot; the experiences of an everyday man, trading his desk job for a log cabin in one of the most dangerous parts of the world.
Guy Grieve's life was going nowhere - trapped in a job he hated, commuting 2,000 miles a month and up to his neck in debt. But he dreamed of escaping it all to live alone in one of the wildest, most remote places on earth - Alaska.
And just when he'd given up hope, the dream came true. Suddenly Guy was thrown into one of the harshest environments in the world, miles from the nearest human being and armed with only the most basic equipment. And he soon found - whether building a log cabin from scratch, hunting, ice fishing…
This novel encapsulates my two loves; a fracturing society and the wilderness. Partially inspired by a real 60s commune, the storyline takes a turn when its free-loving hippies are ousted from their eternal summer of love. Lured by the promise of land and lack of authoritarian oversight, they pack up a school bus and head for Alaska. The characters quickly find that living truly ‘back to nature’ is much harsher and more deadly than they had imagined. Their struggle to adapt makes for unmissable scenes of both man’s inhumanity and solidarity.
Drop City shines where misogyny meets free love and California dreams crash-land in the Alaskan wilderness.
It is 1970, and a down-at-the-heels California commune devoted to peace, free love, and the simple life has decided to relocate to the last frontier-the unforgiving landscape of interior Alaska-in the ultimate expression of going back to the land. Armed with the spirit of adventure and naive optimism, the inhabitants of "Drop City" arrive in the wilderness of Alaska only to find their utopia already populated by other young homesteaders. When the two communities collide, unexpected friendships and dangerous enmities are born as everyone struggles with the bare essentials of life: love, nourishment, and a roof over one's head. Rich,…
When people talk about islanders losing their grip on civilization, the book they usually mention isLord of the Flies. To me, The Beachwill always eclipse it in terms of both shock value and by virtue of being aimed more squarely at adults.
It’s the story of a group of backpackers who discover an Edenic Thai island, unspoiled by tourism. The narrative is part humorous dissection of serial backpacker/tourist culture and part harrowing survival thriller. The island community is slowly torn apart by jealousy, drug lords, and arrogance in a grim acid trip of shark attacks and unrequited love. The unreliable protagonist is really just the icing on the cake.
On Richard's first night in Bangkok, a fellow traveller slits his wrists, leaving Richard a map to "the Beach", where white sands circle a lagoon hidden from the sea, coral gardens and freshwater falls are surrounded by jungle. Richard was looking for adventure, and now he has found it.
Clocking in at over seven hundred pages, this is the longest book to have remained interesting from cover to cover. It charts the fortunes of Robert Cole from post-Roman London to Persia in his quest to become a doctor by attending a majority Muslim university. To do so he risks his life to cross continents and assume a new identity.
This novel takes you through deserts, wars, plagues, and the brutally fickle court of the Shah, all through the eyes of a man gifted with the power to sense death itself. The protagonist makes difficult choices and survives not only famine and conflict, but bloody political intrigue and interreligious conflict.
The sheer level of historical and medical detail needs to be experienced to be believed.
Rob Cole, a penniless orphan in 11th-century London, is possessed by a mysterious power - he can sense death. A mere apprentice, he dreams of controlling the forces of life and death, of mastering the knowledge that will earn him the title of physician.
This book pairs witchcraft with survival in a way that is just sheer perfection to me. In a dystopian village, young women are sent to a wilderness camp to ‘use up’ their dangerous magical talents before returning to be married. If they return at all.
Fiercely feminist in both concept and delivery, this book doesn’t make any pretense that women aren’t part of the problem too. Something that sets it apart from other novels that focus on female-only utopias. The plot allows for the exploration of how women in this world are pulled apart from one another and turned into their own worst enemies. Not only does the main character have to survive the wild, she has to learn to survive the world she must return to.
The Instant New York Times Bestseller! Kim Liggett's The Grace Year is a speculative thriller in the vein of The Handmaid’s Tale and The Power.
Survive the year.
No one speaks of the grace year. It’s forbidden.
In Garner County, girls are told they have the power to lure grown men from their beds, to drive women mad with jealousy. They believe their very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That’s why they’re banished for their sixteenth year, to release their magic into the wild so they can…
Strandedis the story of a reality show gone wrong on a remote Scottish island. Disasters and dissent leave Maddy, an outcast botanist, in a fight for survival against the elements and her fellow islanders. Extreme cold, starvation, poisonous plants, and a local legend of a witch all feature in this tale of survival and isolation.
I've been passionate about music for almost my entire life. Jazz music in particular speaks to me but not just jazz. I love music, full stop. I really discovered jazz when I attended a jazz club workshop in London and there, I had to join in or leave. I chose to join in and since then I have never looked back. I was introduced to more jazz musicians and now write about music for three major columns as well as Readers’ Digest. My Women In Jazz book won several awards. I have been International Editor for the Jazz Journalist Association and had my work commissioned by the Library of Congress.
With input from over 100 musicians, the book discusses what exactly jazz is, and how you know you are listening to it. Do we truly know when and how jazz first originated? Who was the first jazz musician? How does jazz link to other genres? What about women in jazz? And writers and journalists? Do reviews make any difference?
This book is a deep dive into jazz's history, impact, and future. It discusses jazz's social, cultural, and political influence and reveals areas where jazz has had an impact we may not even realize.Its influences on hip hop, the connection to…
This book is very different from other, more general jazz books. It is packed with information, advice, well researched and includes experiences from jazz musicians who gleefully add their rich voices to Sammy's in-depth research. All genres, from hard bop to be-bop, vocal jazz, must instrumental, free jazz, and everything between is covered in one way or another and given Sammy's forensic eye. There is social commentary and discussions of careers in jazz music. The musical background of those in the book is rich and diverse. Critics comment: "This new book by Sammy Stein is a highly individual take on…
