Wednesday, September 15, 2010

The Survivor's Club book review

From the back of the book:

"Each second of the day, one of us faces a crisis, whether it's a car accident, violent crime, serious illness, or financial trouble. Who beats the odds and who surrenders?. . .. .in this book are gripping true stories, astonishing scientific research, and the author's own adventures inside elite survival schools and the government's airplane crash evacuation course."

Think--"Drama in Real Life" from the Reader's Digest. That's what these stories remind me of. True stories of people who survive unbelievable things. There's the woman who trips and falls on her knitting needles, not realizing for several minutes that one of them has punctured her heart. And the woman who falls 6 miles from an airplane and survives. And the woman who survived a mountain lion ripping at her neck and face. There are stories of people who were in the twin towers on 9-11 and survived, and stories of survivors of the holocaust. There are stories of our American soldiers, and the types of training they endure, as well as stories of emergency room patients. All fascinating!

Interspersed with the stories are interesting scientific facts and research, as well as advice on how to BE a survivor. For instance, did you realize that people who attend church once a week live six years longer than people who don't? While this is not a Christian book, per se, the author gives God credit for answered prayers and supernatural intervention.

There is way too much in this book for me to do it justice in this small review. Let me just say it's one of the best non-fiction books I've read and I had a hard time putting it down. There were many of the stories I enjoyed repeating to my family, they were so interesting. The library has it, and it would be a good book for a reluctant teen reader--even if they just paged through and read the stories, and skipped the advice sections.

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