Where the Crawdads Sing / Delia Owens / 384 p.

Kya's story is compelling. She was abandoned by her mother, siblings and father by the age of seven. Kya's strong survival instinct was her only lifeline.  She had so many trials and was wracked with such lonliness, but she survived!  Reading this novel by Delia Owens is an experience not ordinarily felt by the readers of most novels. Our most basic human instincts are revealed and lived by Kya. There is so much to ponder after reading her story. This is, at minimum, a perfect book club discussion novel. I will remember Kya for a long, long time.

Bird Box / Josh Malerman / 260 pages

"Something is out there.....  Something terrifying that must not be seen."  These words hooked me to this story.  I first saw it advertised as a recent movie with Sandra Bullock.  I wanted to read the book before seeing the movie.  Marjorie is a young mother with two young children trying to escape what cannot be seen by traveling down stream on a river to a safe place she was told about.  They must always wear blindfolds when outside.  Five years earlier something entered the world that caused people to go insane and die when it was seen.  Marjorie is living with her sister when these events started happening.  Marjorie has recently discovered she is pregnant.  To survive people cover up all windows and stay indoors.  If they need to go out they blindfold themselves.  Marjorie's sister is exposed to this unknown entity through a crack in the window covering of her room and dies.  Left alone,Marjorie finds her way to a "safe house" she saw listed in a newspaper weeks ago.  There are five other people living there and she is allowed to stay there with them.  Five years later she and her babies are the only survivors of the house.

Forty Autumns / Nina Willner / 355 pages

This is a true story about the author's family.  The author's mother, Hanna, was born in Germany a few years before World War II.  There are eight children in the family and Hanna is the second oldest.  After the war ends Germany is split into East and West Germany.  Hanna and her family are living in what becomes East Germany.  The author tells the story of how Hanna escapes and how the family survives in East Germany.  I had little knowledge of East Germany, but this book does an excellent job of telling what life was like living in East Germany.  It is an amazing and interesting book that held me captive to the very end.  I even cried at some parts!  It will make you appreciate the freedoms we have in our country.

Born Survivors: Three Young Mothers and Their Extraordinary Story of Courage, Defiance, and Hope / Wendy Holden / 368 pages

Born Survivors tells the story of three young Jewish women who gave birth around the same time in 1945.  The women did not know about each other, but were together at Auschwitz II-Birkenau in Poland  in 1944.  They were later sent to the death camp Mauthausen in Austira.  The women managed to conceal their pregnancies. It was nearing the end of the war and the kindness of strangers, which included civilians and guards, helped these women and their babies survive.  Sixty-five years later the three "miracle babies" meet for the first time at Mauthausen for the anniversary of the Americans liberating the camp.  The author does a good job telling the individual stories of each woman.  It is absolutely astounding that these women were able to give birth and for their babies to survive.

Where the Crawdads Sing / Delia Owens / 368 pages

This is the author's first fiction book and she scores a home run with it!  It takes place in a quiet town on the coast of North Carolina.  It begins in 1969 when Chase Andrews is found dead.  Chase is a young, handsome, and popular man in town.  The suspect for the murder is Kya Clark.  Kya is nicknamed "Marsh Girl" because she grew up isolated in the marsh outside town.  The author tells the story between the present with the murder investigation and trial and the past with the childhood and growing up of Kya.  Kya's family one by one abandons her and she is left to survive on her own.  The backdrop of the marsh of North Carolina is vividly described in the book and the author makes you feel you are there.  This is not a book I would have chosen on my own, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend !!

The Mountain Between Us/Charles Martin/329 pages

SCCCLD Book Challenge: The Mountain Between Us/Charles Martin/329pages




WOW!  What a story of survival!  A snowstorm is threatening as Ben Payne is trying to get home after a medical conference/mountain climbing trip and Ashley Knox is trying to make it back home for her wedding.  When their flights are cancelled, Ben hires a private charter and invited Ashley to share the small plane.  Tough pilot, Grover, gets them off the ground and headed in the right direction before the storm hits but then suffers a heart attack and crashes the plane.  Not only is the distress signal equipment disabled on impact but Ben has broken ribs and Ashley has a fractured leg.  Adding to their problems, no one knew they were on the plane, Grover didn't file a flight plan and they are miles off course and literally in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the predicted snowstorm with no food.  You get most of that from the first chapters in the book.  The rest of the story is detailed with what they did trying to survive interwoven with Ben's narratives to his wife, Rachel.  You hear the story of Ben and Rachel from when they met in high school, share moments at lots of track events, medical school and marriage.  From what Ben shares with Ashley, you hear of a loving, caring marriage.  Ben and Rachel seem so perfect for each other that Ashley begins to wonder if she really has met her perfect mate or is she just settling for a trip down the aisle with a good friend.  Meanwhile, back on the mountain, they are freezing, starving and doing a good imitation of being the walking dead trying to find civilization.  Towards the end of the book you start to get the feeling that something is not right with Ben and his wife.  When the "surprise" ending was revealed, I had to go back and re-read portions of the book to see why I hadn't picked up on the details--had I miss read what was written?  But no, Martin has just done a marvelous story telling job.  Parts of the book had me in tears.  Parts of it had me feeling chilly in the middle of August.  Many parts had me marveling that anyone, Ashley or Ben, could have been able to do what they did.  This was a change of pace book for me--not my usual type--but I loved it and recommend it to all.

Desert Dog/ Jim Kjelgaard/ 129 pages

Desert Dog was written by Jim Kjelgaard in 1975.  The setting for the story is a desert somewhere in the western United States.  Tawny is a racing greyhound who finds himself free in the desert.  He learns to cope with the harsh conditions, finding water, hunting food and avoiding predators.  Unlike many dog stories, this one has a happy ending for all.

The Girl from Krakow/ Alex Rosenberg/ 442 pages

The Girl from Krakow is the first novel written by Alex Rosenberg.  The story begins in the midst of World War II  in Poland.  It quickly back tracts to the life of Rita Feuerstahl just prior to the German invasion of Poland.  Rita is a Jewish university student in Krakow set on finding freedom through philosophy.  Before she can achieve that, she finds herself married to one man and in love with another.  As war comes to Poland, Rita finds herself under the control of the Soviets, evading the Germans and desperate to stay alive.  The book deals mainly with the daily hazards of living in an occupied country while trying to not be noticed.  Rita's journey from Karkow to Karpatyn, to Lvov, back to Krakow and finally into Germany itself traces the persecution of the Jews, first by the Soviets and then by the Germans.  Poland was in a bad way from either invader.  Along with the history, the novel also deals with the philosophy of communism, sexual identity and self preservation.  Over all it was  an interesting and thought provoking read.

Miriam's Way/Cissy Lacks/149 pages

Miriam Kornitsky is a young teen who is sent away from her Polish home to save her from the advancing German army. She and her cousin, Sonia, flee to the forest to avoid the strafing gunfire of the German airplanes. Eventually, Miriam is on her own, living in the forest and coming out at night to find what she can from homes and barns to help her survive. She uses the lessons her father has taught her to survive. When the war is over, she discovers she's in Russia and works to get back to her home and what remains of her family.


Written by local author Cissy Lacks, Miriam's Way is a fictionalized account of the true-life experiences of another local woman, Miriam (Kenisberg) Poster. Lacks met Poster at the Jewish Community Center swimming pool. Poster wanted to tell her story so that young people would know that a strong spirit and drive developed when they are young will help them survive anything. Clearly written and meant for YA, you'll find this book cataloged as Adult Fiction in our catalog.

THE MARTIAN / Andy Weir / 367 Pages

Astronaut Mark Watney, specialist in biology and mechanical engineering for the Ares 3 mission, is stranded on Mars. He has no communications equipment and very little food. His crew were forced to evacuate due to a sand storm and believe him dead. Back on Earth, he is being mourned as a hero.

But Mark is not dead and determined to find a way to survive, communicate, and ultimately, to get back home! He logs his efforts, both successes and failures with snarky humor for any future Mars explorers ... just in case he doesn't make it.

A fast-paced, cinematic, adventure, THE MARTIAN will have readers rooting for this wise-cracking, futuristic Robinson Crusoe.(Advance Reading Copy; publication: February 2014)

The Doomsday Prepping Crash Course / Patty Hahne / 165 pages

     Been watching the "Doomsday Preppers" show on TV?  Well, this handy little guide will help you get started with your own preparations.  Not only is it easy to read, it is also small and light so you could consider it an essential reference guide for your bug-out kit. 

     There are separate sections on food, weapons, water, how to pack, what to take, and how to go to the bathroom.  It is really only an overview so the actual prepper would need to return multiple times to the library to find out how to really can food, start fires, make an outhouse etc.  But on the bright side, it does point a novice prepper in the right direction so that they don't just pack some candy and their cd's and leave wearing flip flops.

     A further, but much more subtle use for this book is to inspire hoarders.  Yes, there is a hoarding connection.  Apparently, preppers are secretly hoarders, but they feel like they only collect "good stuff" like bullets, knives, food, wood, toilet paper, alcohol, water, bleach, and plastic bags.  Yes, plastic bags - like from Walmart or Schnuck's.  They plan to use them to bury bathroom waste.  I can just see that working really well.

     So, if you want to be prepared for any doomsday scenario, read this book and then go buy some duct tape.  (and make sure to keep the plastic bag!)

Life of Pi / Yann Martel / 319 p.

Life of Pi is a novel that is sometimes hard to wrap your mind around.  The main premise is that a young man, Pi, and his family decide to move to Canada via ship, taking along some animals from the zoo they owned in India.  Once aboard, the ship has mechanical trouble and sinks.  Pi is tossed into the only successfully launched lifeboat.  Unfortunately, the lifeboat is also occupied by part of his family's zoo-a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and Bengal tiger.

Although the synopsis makes the title sound like a survival story, it is anything but.  Along Pi's journey, you are given clues as to the real meaning but it isn't until the end that you truly understand Pi's struggle.

The challenge with this book is that when you DO get to the end, you realize that you need to reread the entire novel.  So much of the book is written with symbolism in mind that determining what really might have happened takes work on the part of the reader.

But even with the extra work, the storytelling from Martel is well worth it.

Alone / Richard E. Byrd 305 p.

Admiral Richard E. Byrd elects to man a hut alone deep in the Antarctic where he will gather weather data for the 6 months of winter in 1934 and gets the greatest challenge of his career, the monumental struggle to survive carbon monoxide poisoning and retain his sanity-- all kept a secret from his base camp staff.

First person narrative, intricate details, true, nonfiction, adventure writing, historical writing, and journalistic.

Continents Books: Antarctica

Compound/Bodeen/248

Ever wonder how you would survive a nuclear holocaust? In this Gateway Nominee, Eli has spent 6 years underground after a nuclear holocaust with his dad, mom, and two sisters. His twin brother and grandmother were left behind and he discovers that all may not be lost as he was led to believe.