The first ascent of the South Face of Annapurna is told in Bonington's characteristically engaging style. No detail of organization, logistics or communication is left out, with the result that we end up knowing quite a lot about what the climbers had for breakfast and what was said during their radio conversations; but I see this as a good thing. The book is slightly lacking in exciting scenes of actual climbing, as many expedition books unfortunately tend to be, but has plenty of gripping material nevertheless.

but to get the most from it I think it would help to already love surfing. There are twenty selections in this book (310 pgs), eight are from a larger work and the others are stand alones. Seven are profiles of guys who have apparently been big on the surf scene. This is where I think that if you follow surfing you'll get more from the book than I did. However, it's all good writing and the other selections are in three main veins - a history of the sport, reporting on a contest, and focusing on an event or a locale. So in a way, if the sport interests you at all, this is a very good primer. I'll say this - after reading it, I went to the magazine rack, flipped through some surf magazines and found that I recognized the names and locales now. Not a lot of white knuckle, death defying stuff like the mountaineering books - but adrenaline comes in many forms and the challenges the heroes here face are surviving economically as a surfer, beating back newbies to stay on top of the heap, and searching for the "personal best" wave. And it does present a broad view of the surf culture - from Alaska to New York, and clothing to music. A mostly enjoyable read.

EXPLORE adds 18 well-selected tales of adventure to the Adrenaline series. They blend of humor, like Tim Cahill's Peruvian expedition with two eccentric companions; dangerous adventure, including A.N. de Vaca's exploration of America in the early 1500's; and more scholarly accounts, such as David Roberts' search for lost cliff dwellings in New Mexico. The best feature of this book, and the series as a whole, is that it exposes us to writings that we would otherwise never see. Ms Schwamm has cast her net widely and hauled in four centuries of engaging exploration stories. Some are excerpted from works out of print, but the bibliography makes it possible to track these books down if you must hear the rest of the story. So why only four stars? As a collector of the entire series, I find this volume less spine-tingling than the rest, with fewer stories of death-defying danger, which is okay - not all exploration involves a struggle to survive if you go about it properly. If you like National Geographic and the Discovery Channel, this is a book for you.

Clint Willis has launched the Adrenaline Lives series with a strong first volume. The 21 selections are drawn from a wide variety of sources often not focusing on the Kennedys themsleves as much as other people's opinions of and reactions to the Kennedys. The book covers the whole family, with the bulk split between John, Bobby and Teddy. Mr. Willis has again avoided the trap of taking easy pickings - there are no PT 109 excerpts here, nor any rehash of the Bay of Pigs or Cuban Missile Crisis. The selections here are throughtful perspectives on on the people, their lives, and the culture that surrounded them. What I liked best about the book is that it is not biography, per se - you can't use this book for a research paper, but rather it is a collection of snapshots by people who know, knew and are associated with the Kennedys, and the insights you'll take from this book are likely not to be ones you're used to seeing unless you are a Kennedy scholar. I would have liked to have seen selections on Joe and young John, but there are none, and I see that as the only shortcoming.

First of all, the stories in the book are not necessarily the ones listed above. Nothing by McMurtry, or EB White, or the history of NASCAR. Just be aware. Since I'm sending in a correction, it may be fixed by now.
Now, what are in the book are 15 stories, and the 10 that are non-fiction are terrific. You'll go into the pits at NASCAR, on the track at Indy and across numerous continents during road rallies. The writing is great and the excerpts do what excerpts should - they had me in the store looking for the whole work. Nate Hardcastle made wonderful choices.
But . . . here's the but. Five stories - a full one hundred pages are fiction, and not really very exciting fiction at that. Maybe it's me - maybe I just don't get it - but the book's subtitle is Stories of Survival, not Best Writing about Cars. I know there were plenty of other exciting nonfiction stories that could have gone in here, better in keeping with the Adrenaline label. You'll still enjoy this - the first ten stories are worth 5 stars by themselves - but nearly 1/3 of the book is not quite what I expected.

Save your money and purchase the REAL stories 'outlined' in this cheap book put together to ride the wave of The Perfect Storm. The collection of stories is nothing more than a collection of extended abstracts of the real stories. Many of the 'abstracts' are taken out of context and the reader does not get an accurate picture of what and why the nautical situation developed or how it concluded. Pass on this one.

This book is in a series put out by Adrenaline books and each book contains certain selections chosen by the editor. The selections are either excerpts from books, excerpts from diaries and journals, short stories, or an occasional essay. I look at how good the writing is, and how good the stories are.

There are 16 selections in this book. Half of them range from good to great, and the other eight are fairly poor. The writing is okay throughout, with some being more exceptional than others, but it's the stories that differ the most in quality. Six of them, whether written well or not, have virtually no story whatsoever or are very poor. As it turns out, the best stories in this book are also some of the better written. This is where the book's strength shows up. The selections introduce you to stories and books you may have never read and after reading some of the good selections, it makes you want to go read the books they were taken from. So I would mostly recommend this book to people who have not read much or any sea stories. It introduces you to a wide variety of sea literature. But otherwise I would only lightly recommend it by saying that everyone would find some selections that they really like.

Clint Willis has created a fascinating series of books with Epic, Climb, High, Wild, Ice, Rough Water, and The War. Each of these volumes presents the best literature about their respective subjects in a powerful cohesive manner. These books are a quick read, but intricate and spellbinding. I have given many of them to friends and family as gifts.

I was disappointed in this book. I found the majority of material to be related to 9/11 or to wildland firefighting while the cover implies it covers all ranges of firefighting. The material included is good...it just spends very little time on structural firefighting and the men who do that job. What time it does dedicate to it is mostly in the form of re-hash of previous material; Report from Engine Co 82, Working etc. There are better books out there, unless you are interested in wildland firefighting. If you are, then this is one of the better books on the subject.

You'll have trouble putting this one down. 21 strong selections look at firefighting from a variety of angles. I read a lot of 'fire books' but the editor found plenty I had not seen. 8 of the 21 stories are stand-alone articles, not excerpts - 2 about 9-11 that will just tear you up. The focus is split about 50/50 between city firefighting and forest firefighting, with a couple essays from folks who don't actually fight fires themselves, but must live with those who do. You'll read about a lot of brave men who never came home from their fires and you can't help but pause at the end of most of the selections. This book is especially relevant in the summer of 2002 with wildfires devouring Arizona and Colorado - what a way to better understand the human aspect of what you see on the news, and even learn something. Willis has chosen powerful, gut-wrenching, tear-jerking stuff from sources you haven't seen and you or your firefighter will stay up to read this one cover to cover.

"Alone at the Summit" is an enjoyable read. The first 1/3 is a little slow, but I was totally drawn in as Venables and his team mates move up the mountain. Venables includes a history of Himalayan climbing at the back. The history is interesting and provides good perspective for understanding both the philosophy behind this 1988 expedition and its historical context.

If you like to read climbing expedition books, I recommend that you read "Alone at the Summit."

"Alone at the Summit" is a fantastic book about a team of four climbers on the tallest mountain in the world. Against all odds, this team pioneered a route that was one of the last "frontiers" of mountaineering. Much has been said and written about the author's actions and the way he describes the events on Everest. First of all, read the book and you will be pleased to find that Venables WAS NOT rescued at the summit of Everest-the ending has not been spoiled. Second, he and the other members of his team overcame a great deal of adversity on this climb-including Venables' bivouac that has kiled a great number of people on Everest. Lastly, everyone involved in mountaineering (climbers, rescuers, etc.) is aware of the great risk involved in the activity. Individuals make a concsious decision to strap on their crampons and head up the mountain. There is no excuse for adding unneccesary risk in this sport, nor is there much room for hubris. "Alone at the Summit" fulfills these requirements. Venables has the right mix of self-responsibility, humor and frustration to make this a balanced book. This one of a few books I recommend for dealing with the power of determination in overcoming adversity.

Many of the reviews of this book berate it because the author got injured and had to be rescued from the base of the mountain. Well, I assume many of these people havn't done much mountain climbing.

The whole lure of mountain climbing is the risk involved. If nothing could ever go wrong when climbing a mountain, then what's the point of doing it? It's the thrill of danger and the challenge of staying a live that makes it so attractive. Stephen Venables met this challenge head on. He had to fight through injuries, exhaustion and the elements to get down the mountain alive and so did his friends. That's nothing to put down, that is what happens when mountaineering. And this was down the East face, the hardest part of Everest to climb.

I thought this was a great book. The author really shows what pushing yourself to the limits in life threatening conditions feels like. This book will go on the shelf with my other top adventure books.

I must add that the author was not rescued at the top of the mountain as people seem to be saying. He was rescued at the base of the mountain in the valley, after climbing down the mountain himself. There's a big big difference there.

The best part of this book was the cover. A wonderful picture of a sunset in the mountains. Had the cover made it clear that the "author" did nothing more than take excerpts from other books I never would have bought the book. The excerpts were taken so that you never really knew who you were reading about. His choices left me feeling used and I am sure he ruined several good books for me. None of the stories related in "Wild" has convinced me to read the whole book. What a shame!

The literary quality of this book is fair. However, most of the stories have nothing to do with "survival" or "the world's most dangerous places." This is one of the most dishonest tiles I have ever seen. Come on. Where are the "stories of survival?" For example, you may or may not find it interesting to read Edward Abby's ruminations on floating through Glen Canyon, but there is no implication whatsoever that this is one of the world's most dangerous places, or that there was any issue of survival at all. The same can be said of 2/3 of these accounts.

This is yet another in Clint Willis's ongoing series of adrenaline, adventure, survival, disaster, storm, etc. series in which he seeks to capitalize on the rage for danger and excitement that is currently sweeping the literary market. In my search for material for a class on adventure writing I teach, I have read all of them, and found them a mixed lot with some real gems thrown in. This particular anthology is no exception, though I wish Willis would stop over dramatizing his titles. A more realistic name for the collection might be, "Exciting Moments in the Wilds," or "Wildernesss Moments."

Questionable names aside (giving titles to books is an art after all) this collection has some stand out and downright bizarre pieces that are worth reading. If you're looking for a good old-fashioned adventure story with plenty of excitement, try Dave Robert's "A Wilderness Narrrative," or Joe Kane's "Savages." For more than you ever wanted to know about tropical diseases and the dangers of traveling in the Amazaon jungle, try Redmond O'Hanlon's "In Trouble Again." But if you're looking for something really different, something that will not only entertain but make you question your sense of reality, read Barry Lopez's "Pearyland," in which the main character (a student Lopez met in an airport) steps into another, parallel world, or "The Willows" by Algernon Blackwood. The Willows in particular carries a disturbing undertone of unease and menace. The things that happen in this story shouldn't, and there is no real explanation for them.

Other, less off the wall, though no less entertaining pieces inlcude Edward Abbey's "Down the River" and Evelyn Waugh's "The Man Who Liked Dickens."

All in all, this is a worhty addition to Willis's growing pile of anthologies, thanks to the solid contributions from familiar and well-established names, but when will Willis dare to include the work of lesser known, though no less talented writers?

I used to be a fan of this writer, until I realized that almost all of his climbing stories follow exactly the same theme: He climbs; he messes up; he relies on others to get him down; he then rags on the ones who saved him. I guess it was funny first time around, when he was rescued on Everest. After round three, having put so many of his recuers at needless risk and then being so ungracious towards them, I kind of thought he had lost his right to climb (not to mention his right to be rescued). Unfortunately, he drones on in this book, a kind of "worst of" compilation of his previous writings. Nothing new here, unfortunately. I'm waiting for the "Stephen Venables Grows Up" story. That said, there are still good, though negative lessons in this book, and given the short chapters, less chance for him to navle-gaze too much, which was a major weakness in his previous books.

The first half of this book was more interesting for me -- the expedition to Kishtware Shivling was self-contained and the author was able to convey more of a sense of place and spirit. The second half settles down to more of slow, plodding pace. There are no great revelations; it is almost as if the famed British 'reserve' seems to come into play. The writing itself doesn't have the same spirit or liveliness that other writers bring to the genre of mountaineering books; that is, less of the climbers' actual personalities are conveyed than in other books. Unlike some of the best books, there are few spots in this book where the tension and pressures of climbing become self-evident in the writing and the expressed drama between the climbers. That said, there were parts of the book that were very rewarding and enjoyable to read such as the elaborate details given on the hike into the mountains gave me a better perspective on the geography rather than just observation of details. In short, this not a bad book by any stretch of the definition -- it's just not a great one.

The first part of this book focuses on Venables' and Dick Renshaw's summit of Kishtwar-Shivling, a then unclimbed 6000 meter peak in the Himalaya. Venables is a capable author and conveys a sense of adventure that books of this type often lack. He understates the danger they faced on the mountain, particularly after their summit climb. The second half of the book deals with the Alpine Club's climbing in the Eastern Karakoram. Venables did make a mistake and he certainly expressed his sense of embarrassment at his blunder (I don't want to spoil the book for those who haven't read it). Venables does not "rag on the ones who saved him." This book is a nice change of pace, as it focuses on basically unknown mountains.