LiterariLeigh

The snow is snowing all around. When I look out the library windows there are big, fat, wet flakes pouring from the sky. The trees are covered. The grass is covered. My car is covered. Thank goodness I just bought a new snow brush! Whenever it gets this snowy and cold, I start thinking about survival books. There's just something about flurries that renews my appreciation for the heated indoors.

 One book I remember from a number of years ago is Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read. The true story of an Uruguay rugby team whose plane crashed in the South American Andes mountains, there were 45 people on the plane, but only 16 made it off the mountain alive. Those who survived were subject to the harshest conditions the snowy mountains could offer, a small supply of food that dwindled to nothing, and finally the horrifying choice of cannibalism or death. Alive is gripping, emotional and visceral, presenting the worst and best in humanity. Not recommended for timid or tender readers.