True Survival

James Bond: author, ornithologist, marksman, and...identity-theft victim? When James Bond published his landmark book, Birds of the West Indies, he had no idea it would set in motion events that would link him to the most iconic spy in the Western world and turn his life upside down. Born into a wealthy family but cut off in his early 20s, James Bond took off to the West Indies in search of adventure.

Here’s a little-kept secret: liberals, independents, and conservatives all own firearms. Gun ownership is one of the few issues that crosses all sides of the aisle. In their book, Guns and Self-Defense: 23 Inspirational True Crime Stories of Survival with Firearms, Robert A. Waters and Sim Waters describe exciting true stories in which a cross-section of Americans used guns to fend off violent assailants.

Trapped inside a burning Lancaster bomber, 20,000 feet above Berlin, airman John Martin consigned himself to his fate and turned his thoughts to his fiancee back home. In a miraculous turn of events, however, the 21-year-old was thrown clear of his disintegrating airplane and found himself parachuting into the heart of Nazi Germany. He was soon to be captured and began his period as a prisoner of war.

A true story of courage and survival, South to Alaska carries listeners from the heartland of America to the last frontier... the hard way. Born in the dusty heart of Oklahoma in 1916, 10-year-old Melvin sees a photograph of a cabin in the Alaska wilderness in his fourth-grade geography book and dreams of living there. Nearly 50 years later he builds a 47-foot boat in his Arkansas backyard, launches it on the Arkansas River, and cruises 10,000 miles to Alaska by way of the Panama Canal. Melvin has never been south of the United States/Mexico border.

On November 18, 1958, a 623-foot limestone carrier - caught in one of the most violent storms in Lake Michigan history - broke in two and sank in less than five minutes. Four of the 35-person crew escaped to a small raft, to which they clung in total darkness, braving 30-foot waves and frigid temperatures. As the storm raged on, a search-and-rescue mission hunted for survivors, while the frantic citizens of nearby Rogers City, Michigan, anxiously awaited word of their loved ones' fates.

No Better Friend tells the incredible true story of Frank Williams, a radarman in Britain's Royal Air Force, and Judy, a purebred pointer, who met as prisoners of war during World War II. Judy, who became the war's only official canine POW, was a fiercely loyal dog who sensed danger - warning her fellow prisoners of imminent attacks and protecting them from brutal beatings. Frank and Judy's friendship, an unbreakable bond forged in the worst circumstances, is one of the great recently unearthed stories of World War II.

Run Rachel Run is a true story, not just based on a true story. Rachel Blum was 12 when the Nazis invaded her town. Over the next three years, she witnessed war, risked her life to smuggle food for her family, escaped liquidation, hid with a kind Polish couple whose son worked for the SS, was questioned if she was a Jew by an SS General, and engineered an incredibly dangerous scheme to overturn a moving trainload of 1,000 Nazi soldiers.

With only three days remaining until Thanksgiving, the day was graced by beautiful, sunny weather. A bright and intelligent medical student decided to embark on an adventure to explore a popular and intriguing cave, which was considered suitable for beginners. Despite everything appearing to go smoothly, a single mistake changed the course of events. Taking a wrong turn led to a tragedy that continues to evoke speculation and terror even today. This tragic incident is famously known as The Nutty Putty Cave incident.

On June 19, 2001, Ryan Corbin, grandson of Pat Boone and son of Lindy Boone Michaelis, accidentally stepped through a skylight and fell three stories onto a cement floor. As Ryan lingered between life and death in intensive care, Pat and Lindy decided to take action in a big way: They went on Larry King Live, shared their faith, and asked millions of TV viewers to pray for Ryan. Heaven Hears is the amazing story of what happened next. You won't want to miss this story of tragedy and triumph from the Boone family. It's a story of the immovable faith of a mother, the incredible power of prayer, and the undeniable evidence that heaven hears us.

Here is the astonishing true story of Ruth Harkness, the Manhattan bohemian socialite who, against all but impossible odds, trekked to Tibet in 1936 to capture the most mysterious animal of the day: a bear that had for countless centuries lived in secret in the labyrinth of lonely cold mountains. In The Lady and the Panda, Vicki Constantine Croke gives us the remarkable account of Ruth Harkness and her extraordinary journey, and restores Harkness to her rightful place along with Sacajawea, Nellie Bly, and Amelia Earhart as one of the great woman adventurers of all time.

This enthralling audiobook takes us on a tour of the most dangerous, exciting, and often eccentric escapades of literature's sailing stars and how these true stories inspired and informed their best-loved works. Arthur Ransome, Erskine Childers, Jack London, and many others are featured as we find out how extraordinary fact fed into unforgettable fiction.

That day started like any other but by lunchtime, I was fighting for my very life. A stroke is like that. You don't see it coming. There was nothing to do but let nature take its course—no guarantee I'd live much less return to full health. So, be prepared to travel through the terror and frustration of paralysis to a place of peace and gratitude where life resides with hope.

With How to Have a Kid and a Life, popular journalist and Good Morning America parenting expert Ericka Sóuter shares her tips for being a happy, whole person while still being a great, and sometimes just good enough (which is plenty fine), parent.

On October 23, 2012, with Superstorm Sandy fast approaching, Captain Robin Walbridge made the fateful decision to sail the HMS Bounty from New London, Connecticut, to St. Petersburg, Florida, believing the wooden ship, a replica of the original, famous Bounty, would fare better at sea than at port. He told the crew that anyone who did not want to come on the voyage could leave the ship and there would be no hard feelings. No one took the captain up on his offer, and this decision would have fatal consequences.

Just three weeks after my 21st birthday, on the evening of October 4, 1994, I was abducted from the streets of my hometown in Southern Russia while on my way home. They drugged me and drove to another country, where they held me captive in a tiny room at first, and then under a house in a pit. A few weeks after my kidnapping, a brutal civil war broke out. Through eight horrifying months of captivity, witnessing atrocities, surviving bombings and sexual violence, I fought desperately to stay alive, stay sane, and not to lose the one thing that kept me going: my hope.

God, the Mafia, My Dad, and Me shares a tale of enduring love, unwavering courage, and the unbreakable bond between a father and daughter. These are the true stories of Lori and her father, Lou Peters, a former combat Marine who attracted the attention of the Bonnano crime family and was thrust into a spotlight he never imagined for himself. You’ll learn about the strength required to protect those you love in battles no one else sees—not even the family you’re protecting. Equal parts beautiful and tragic, this gripping memoir reveals the inexplicable ties that bind.

A roller-coaster collection of true short stories that follow a young man searching for sincere adventure along the tops of freight trains and mountain ranges. The danger can be nausea-inducing while he hangs on a single flexing hold of sandstone hundreds of feet off the ground or attempts to skirt the sexual advances of a meth-smoking trucker while hitchhiking through the middle of nowhere. Between the many gripping scenes, his debasing humor acknowledges the foolishness in the romance of it all.

You will be challenged and inspired as you join Neville on board for this real-life, white-knuckle adventure on the high seas....A magnificent account of courage and perseverance as a young doctor takes time off from his busy practice to sail a 31' yacht (single-handed much of the way) from England to New Zealand.

It was one of the strangest sights the Coast Guard pilots had ever seen: a tall-masted wooden ship, the kind that sailed centuries ago, capsizing in the wind and towering waves of Hurricane Sandy off the coast of North Carolina. It looked like something out of a movie - and, in a way, it was. The ship was the Bounty, a replica of a British merchant vessel of the same name whose crew famously mutinied in 1789. She had been built for a Marlon Brando film in the 1960s - and now she was sinking, her 16-person crew fleeing into the sea amid the splintered wood and torn canvas.

Middle-class, mid-career, and Midwestern, 20-something Emily Carpenter walks into a new job that isn't middle anything. In only slightly more time than it takes to get a passport, this brave adventuress finds herself thrust into a world of lavish luxury, corporate hijinks, and personal scandal. Jet-setting around the globe with her sociopathic boss, she discovers the line between right and wrong is generally negotiable, and almost always in a language other than English.