The Explorers & Survival category has 204 audiobooks on Listento.it, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 1,191 ratings. The most-rated is Le sablier.
Sons of the Waves
Summary
A brilliant telling of the history of the common seaman in the age of sail and his role in Britain's trade, exploration, and warfare British maritime history in the age of sail is full of the deeds of officers like Nelson but has given little voice to plain, "illiterate" seamen. Now, Stephen Taylor draws on published and unpublished memoirs, letters, and naval records, including court-martials and petitions, to present these men in their own words. In this exhilarating account, ordinary seamen are far from the hapless sufferers of the press gangs. Proud and spirited, learned in their own fashion, with robust opinions and the courage to challenge overweening authority, they stand out from their less adventurous compatriots. Taylor demonstrates how the sailor was the engine of British prosperity and expansion up to the Industrial Revolution. From exploring the South Seas with Cook to establishing the East India Company as a global corporation, from the sea battles that made Britain a superpower to the crisis of the 1797 mutinies, these "sons of the waves" held the nation's destiny in their calloused hands.
©2020 Stephen Taylor (P)2020 Tantor
Amelia Earhart: The Truth at Last - Second Edition
Summary
Nearly everything the American public has seen, read, and heard in the media for nearly 80 years about the so-called Amelia Earhart mystery is intentionally false or inadvertently misleading. The widely accepted myth that the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan during their ill-fated world-flight attempt in July 1937 is among the greatest aviation mysteries of the 20th century is an abject lie, the result of decades of government propaganda that continues unabated to this day. This second edition of Amelia Earhart: The Truth at Last adds two sections, a new foreword, and the most recent discoveries and analysis to the mountain of overwhelming witness testimony and documentation presented in the first edition of "Truth at Last". The result is the most compelling, comprehensive presentation of the indisputable facts that reveal the stark truth about the Marshall Islands and Saipan presence and deaths of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan - a tragic story that American’s ruling class still doesn’t want the public to know, for reasons revealed in Amelia Earhart: The Truth at Last. Amelia Earhart: The Truth at Last dismantles and debunks the popular theories that Amelia Earhart's Electra crashed and sank off Howland Island on July 2, 1937, or landed at Gardner Island, now Nikumaroro, where the suddenly helpless fliers died of starvation on an island teeming with food sources. "The Truth at Last" presents many remarkable new findings, eyewitness accounts, and never published revelations from unimpeachable sources including three famous U.S. flag officers and iconic newsman and Earhart researcher Fred Goerner's files that reveal the truth about Amelia’s death on Saipan, as well as the sacred cow status of this matter within the US government and media establishment.
©2013 Sunbury Press, Inc. (P)2020 Beacon Audiobooks
If I Live Until Morning
Summary
Best Book Awards Finalist - Travel and Essays Category (Sponsored by the American Book Fest) An inspiring memoir about a courageous woman's survival and recovery from an adventure-induced trauma - and the power of her dreams to overcome tragedy and live life to the fullest. Her wilderness adventure turned into a nightmare. After skiing more than 200 miles along California's John Muir Trail, Jean faces death from a mountaineering accident on Mount Whitney. Broken and bleeding on the highest peak in the continental United States, she vows to realize her greatest dreams if she lives until morning. Her escape from the Sierra Nevada Mountains turns into an amazing five-day survival story. Jean's recovery is equally daunting. In this outdoor adventure memoir, her three-decade journey takes her from the depths of despair and chronic pain, to the heights of the Himalayas and on travels around the world. When the specter of Mount Whitney continues to shatter her life, Jean befriends Tibetan lamas. Their ancient wisdom guides her on a path beyond her wildest dreams.
©2018 Jean Muenchrath (P)2020 Jean Muenchrath
Sieben Jahre in Tibet
Summary
Der Tibetkenner Heinrich Harrer lebte als einziger Europäer am tibetanischen Königshof und wurde zum engem Vertrauten des Dalai Lama. Übersetzungen in mehr als vierzig Sprachen und Auflagen in Millionenhöhe ließen seine Erinnerungen zu einem Weltbestseller werden. Fünfzig Jahre nach der spektakulären Flucht Heinrich Harrers über den Hinmalaja nach Tibet kam das Abenteuer des Jahrhunderts in der Verfilmung von Jean-Jacques Annaud mit Brad Pitt in der Hauptrolle in die Kinos.
©2006 Ullstein Buchverlage GmbH, Berlin (P)2013 Der Hörverlag
Captain George Flavel
Summary
Astoria, Oregon, owes its existence as much to a little-known ship captain as its namesake, John Jacob Astor. Captain George Flavel happened upon the ramshackle village at the mouth of the Columbia River in the fall of 1849, bringing goods during the California Gold Rush. As he subsequently captained and piloted three different ships along the Pacific coast, he learned that the perilous Columbia River Bar, the "graveyard of the Pacific", barred the entrance to most mariners. Hazards abounded. Powerful tides and currents merged with the river's flow, storms, and winds to produce towering waves and an ever-shifting bar - a living, breathing peril to lives, shipping, and cargo. But Flavel recognized that a wise and knowledgeable pilot could master this peril and possibly build a career, a future, and the town of Astoria at the river's mouth.
©2020 Jon Ellis Drury (P)2021 Jon Ellis Drury
Company of Stone
Summary
Say what you will, but the spirit of a place takes on an important role in the affairs of humans. In an old house, an empty theater, a cemetery, or where there was past conflict, a tangible energy haunts and can attach itself to a visitor in the present…. With yet-unhealed wounds from recent combat in southeast Asia, John Moore undertook an unexpected walking tour in the rugged Scottish Highlands. With a season of freezing rainstorms approaching, he took shelter in a remote monastery. This chance encounter would change his future, his beliefs about blind chance, and the unexpected courses by which the best in human nature can smuggle its way into the life of a stranger. He did not anticipate the brotherhood's easy hospitality or the surprising variety of personalities and guarded backgrounds that soon emerged in their silent community. Afterward, a chance conversation overheard in a village pub steered him to Canada, where he took a job as a rock drill operator in a large, industrial gold mine. He encountered dangers among the lost men in that dangerous other world, where secretive men sought permanent anonymity in the perils of work deep underground. A brutal kind of monasticism challenged both his endurance and his sense of humanity. With sensitivity and delightfully good humor, Moore explores the surprising lessons learned in these strangely rich fraternities of forgotten men: a brotherhood housed in crumbling medieval masonry and one shared in the unforgiving depths of the gold mine.
©2014 John Rixey Moore (P)2016 Bettie Youngs / Bettie Youngs Book Publishers
The Storm
Summary
It all begins in early 1984, when Chris, a 21-year-old UCLA English literature major, risks ostracism when he comes out of the closet to his fraternity brothers just as the AIDS pandemic is beginning to explode in gay communities across the United States. Soon afterward, Chris meets and falls in love with Stephen, a graduate of Yale University and Law School, and the two of them build a life together as their friends start to fall sick and die from the spreading storm of AIDS. Stephen begins showing symptoms of AIDS in early 1986, and Chris faces a difficult choice as he is certain that he, too, eventually will be stricken by the disease. He abandons his writing career and attends the UCLA business school so that he can earn enough money to pay for healthcare during Stephen's illness. The Storm is filled with heart, optimism, and love, interspersed with Los Angeles history, gay and lesbian history, AIDS history, and the backdrop of the 1980s and 1990s. It is an unflinching and, at times, raw memoir of perseverance, integrity, forgiveness, the power of love, spiritual growth, Carpe Diem, dreams, and, most of all, survival and ultimate triumph.
©2020 Christopher Zyda (P)2021 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
The Death by Bunjie Crossbow Story
Summary
Narrated by the author, this is the tell-all tale of hunting with the same crossbow for a decade. Detailed exploits of Bunjie the crossbow and lessons learned by the hunter who carried him make this book an enjoyable and informative listening experience. You will be a better hunter if you listen to the author read this book! Well, at least you will be a happier one. Although some of the stories in this book will be familiar to friends of Bunjie who follow the YouTube channel, Death by Bunjie, there are plenty of surprises in this book to make it a must-listen. Will you even learn how Bunjie got its name? There is only one way to find out. Listen to this book!
©2020 Richard A. Wilson, Esq. (P)2020 Richard A. Wilson, Esq.
Hell Before Breakfast
Summary
From the acclaimed author of The Pattons and Patriot Pirates: a book that celebrates America’s forgotten war correspondents, men who were legends in their time; who, between 1860 and 1910, between the Civil War and the Spanish-American War - when empires fell and dynasties flourished - led romantic, thrilling lives on the edgiest frontiers of time and place: seeing the world, breaking the stories, making news themselves during the time when newspapers made the most foreign of landscapes available, and the circulation wars were revolutionizing contemporary life, shaping global events, and making history. The first war correspondent, William H. Russell of The Times of London, described himself and his profession as "the miserable parent of a luckless tribe". Others saw it differently: the term war correspondent became the stuff of dreams and an urgent romantic calling. Now, in Hell Before Breakfast, the acclaimed historian Robert Patton writes of these fearless young correspondents: Henry Villard and John Russell Young of The New York Herald, and George Smalley and Holt White of The New York Tribune, among many others - correspondents who were center stage and who, in their on-the-spot reporting, captured large events as they were happening, and whose intrepid spirit and sense of adventure inspired generations of storytellers, explorers, artists, writers, statesmen, and politicians, even moviemakers, from Kipling and Churchill to Theodore Roosevelt, N. C. Wyeth, D. W. Griffith, and Cecil B. DeMille, each of whose adolescence was shaped during this spectacular age of war correspondence.
©2014 Robert H. Patton (P)2014 Audible Inc.
Queen of the Desert
Summary
In the shadow of every great man is a greater woman. T.E. Lawrence is often credited with bringing diplomacy to the Middle East; in the shadows of every great man, you will often find an even greater woman. In Lawrence’s case, that woman’s name was Gertrude Bell. In a time when women didn't go to school, Bell did; in a time when women didn't join the army, Bell secured a job at the Army Intelligence Headquarters in Cairo; she spoke Arabic, Persian, French, and German. She knew the Middle Eastern terrain and culture better than almost any Westerner of her time. In a male-driven world, Bell managed to become one of the greatest policymakers the world has ever known; without her, the Middle East might very well be a much different place, and her influence in the territory gave her the nickname "Queen of the Desert". This biography tells the extraordinary story of one of the most adventurous and fascinating women you will ever encounter.
©2021 Golgotha Press, Inc. (P)2021 Golgotha Press, Inc.
Fatal Forecast
Summary
Fatal Forecast chronicles a dramatic fight for survival aboard two small fishing boats that were ambushed by a horrific surprise storm just southeast of Cape Cod. Soon after the Fair Wind and the Sea Fever reached the fishing ground at Georges Bank, they were hit with hurricane-force winds and massive 90-foot waves that battered the boats for hours. The direction of the wind made it impossible to turn back. The Fair Wind soon capsized, drowning all but one of the crewmembers. The Sea Fever was nearly torn apart. Here is the hour-by-hour account of the struggles faced by the eight crewmembers of the Fair Wind and the Sea Fever, including the incredible ordeal of Ernie Hazard, who endured three days in a lifeboat in open water. The book also details the dramatic rescue attempts made by the Coast Guard, on a day in which it received more mayday calls than any other in New England history.
©2007 Michael Tougias (P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc.
Free Outside
Summary
A man walked into the woods, destined to spend eight months living in the wild. Exhausted and emotionally ruined living the fast-paced life of a successful young professional, it was all too easy to give up. The challenges came on the adventure of a lifetime. Months in the woods that would provide adversity, healing, and tranquility. Setting out to thru-hike the Pacific Crest Trail, Appalachian Trail, and Continental Divide Trail in a single calendar year was an audacious goal but the 8,000 mile Calendar Year Triple Crown would be the story of a lifetime. The journey was riddled with inclement weather, shady characters, wildlife attacks, and injuries. The trails crossed frozen rivers, were rerouted around wildfires, and packed with snow. The physical challenge was soon overshadowed by the mental toughness required. It became a mental battle. Free Outside is a captivating story of strength and courage. Hiking through remote areas in America, Jeff is continually overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of strangers. Free Outside is the fascinating story of Jeff Garmire’s journey along the national scenic trails that define wild America. Narrated by the author: Jeff Garmire. Enjoy this story of hiking 8,000 miles along the triple crown trails of America.
©2019 Jeff Garmire (P)2020 Jeff Garmire
Captain James Cook
Summary
"To boldly go where no man has gone before" was a phrase made popular by Gene Rodenberry in a science fiction setting, but it was certainly the creed of countless explorers during the Age of Discovery and afterwards. In fact, as recently as the mid-18th century, a young sailor named James Cook determined to go "farther than any man has been before me, but as far as I think it is possible for a man to go." And unlike so many others who tried, he did just that. Cook was a war veteran who participated in the French & Indian War, but he remains best known over 250 years later for sailing thousands of miles across much of the Pacific, mapping regions, naming new places, and making scientific discoveries. Indeed, there are plenty of similarities between Cook's three voyages and the famed "five year mission" of the Enterprise. Like Captain Picard, Cook's missions were supposed to be peaceful and focused primarily on scientific research. His first voyage, which took him to New Zealand, was meant to transport astronomers to study Venus, and his second voyage also carried several scientists tasked with "exploring strange new worlds" that Cook and his crew encountered. At the same time, Cook also seemed to run across many of the same problems faced by explorers across all centuries, even the fabled 23rd century.
©2016 Charles River Editors (P)2017 Charles River Editors
Half-Safe
Summary
In 1948, a young Australian mining engineer named Ben Carlin set out to do the impossible: circumnavigate the globe, by land and sea, in a single vehicle. The vehicle in question was an amphibious jeep developed by the U.S. Army, which Carlin christened Half-Safe, after a deodorant slogan. It was a mechanical mongrel that was supposed to move with equal ease across land and water but in practice wasn't much good for either one. Undaunted, Carlin and his wife Elinore set off across the Atlantic Ocean with dreams of fame and fortune, and of carving a small notch in history. What happened next is one of the most bizarre, remarkable, and forgotten adventure stories of the 20th century. In Half-Safe, author James Nestor endeavors to uncover Ben Carlin's fate and finds a gripping story of love, danger, and extraordinary perseverance that spans three oceans and five continents. Half-Safe takes us from the eye of an Atlantic Ocean hurricane to the sweltering Sahara to the impenetrable jungles of Southeast Asia - and into the mind of a man who could overcome everything but his own demons.
©2012 The Atavist, James Nestor (P)2012 The Atavist, James Nestor
John Glenn
Summary
“As I hurtled through space, one thought kept crossing my mind - every part of this rocket was supplied by the lowest bidder.” (John Glenn) Today the Space Race is widely viewed poignantly and fondly as a race to the Moon that culminated with Apollo 11 “winning” the Race for the United States. In fact, it encompassed a much broader range of competition between the Soviet Union and the United States that affected everything from military technology to successfully launching satellites that could land on Mars or orbit other planets in the Solar System. In fact, the Soviet Union had spent much of the 1950s leaving the United States in its dust. In 1960, when Eisenhower’s administration began planning and funding for the famous Apollo program that would land the first men on the Moon in 1969, the Soviet Union was already thinking further ahead, literally. In one of the worst kept secrets of the Space Race, the Soviet Union launched two probes, Korabl 4 and Korabl 5, toward Mars in October 1960. With the opening of a new decade, the Soviets reinforced their Space Race lead in a big way. On April 12, 1961, the world watched as the Soviets scored two major victories: they sent the first human being into space and made that man the first to orbit the Earth. Yuri Gagarin's success seemed to both solidify the Soviet's lead in the Space Race and underline the importance of scientific achievements in the race for geopolitical prestige. Even on the other side of the world, the United States could not deny the significance of the Vostok mission. President Kennedy graciously congratulated the Soviets, while privately conceding that it would be impossible for the United States to match Soviet space achievements for some time. At the same time, American policymakers also understood the depth of this latest defeat in the Space Race. On February 20, 1962, John Glenn orbited the Earth, nearly a year after Gagarin’s orbit, and he remains best known for that historic feat, but in many ways it obscures a life and career of astonishing depth. Before the Friendship 7 mission, Glenn was already a distinguished combat fighter in multiple wars, and he was one of America’s best test pilots, a record that included making the first supersonic transcontinental flight in American history. He was an obvious candidate for the country’s first team of astronauts, and it launched him not only into space but into a long political career. All told, Glenn earned too many awards to count, and along the way, he became the oldest person to fly in space. John Glenn: The Life and Legacy of the First American Astronaut to Orbit Earth profiles his life, chronicles his historic space mission, and details all the highlights before and after it. You will learn about John Glenn like never before.
©2019 Charles River Editors (P)2019 Charles River Editors
In Search of a Kingdom
Summary
In this grand and thrilling narrative, the acclaimed biographer of Magellan, Columbus, and Marco Polo brings alive the singular life and adventures of Sir Francis Drake, the pirate/explorer/admiral whose mastery of the seas during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I changed the course of history. “Bergreen masterly portrays...the swashbuckling life and times of the explorer who achieved what Magellan could not - and made England’s fortune in the process.” (Kirkus, starred review) Before he was secretly dispatched by Queen Elizabeth to circumnavigate the globe or was called upon to save England from the Spanish Armada, Francis Drake was perhaps the most wanted - and successful - pirate ever to sail. Nicknamed "El Draque" by the Spaniards who placed a bounty on his head, the notorious red-haired, hot-tempered Drake pillaged galleons laden with New World gold and silver, stealing a vast fortune for his queen - and himself. For Elizabeth, Drake made the impossible real, serving as a crucial and brilliantly adaptable instrument of her ambitions to transform England from a third-rate island kingdom into a global imperial power. In 1580, sailing on Elizabeth's covert orders, Drake became the first captain to circumnavigate the earth successfully. (Ferdinand Magellan had died in his attempt.) Part exploring expedition, part raiding mission, Drake's audacious around-the-world journey in the Golden Hind reached Patagonia, the Pacific Coast of present-day California and Oregon, the Spice Islands, Java, and Africa. Almost a decade later, Elizabeth called upon Drake again. As the devil-may-care vice admiral of the English fleet, Drake dramatically defeated the once-invincible Spanish Armada, spurring the British Empire’s ascent and permanently wounding its greatest rival. The relationship between Drake and Elizabeth is the missing link in our understanding of the rise of the British Empire, and its importance has not been fully described or appreciated. Framed around Drake’s key voyages as a window into this crucial moment in British history, In Search of a Kingdom is a rousing adventure narrative entwining epic historical themes with intimate passions. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2021 Laurence Bergreen (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers
Not Tonight, Josephine
Summary
Two Brits, George and Mark, set off from New York City to explore the back roads of America. In this calamity-ridden travel tale, George sets out in true clichéd fashion to discover the real America. Throw in plenty of run-ins with the police, rapidly dwindling finances, and Josephine - the worst car in the world - and you have all the ingredients for a classic American road trip. Will George and Mark make it all the way to California? And then there is Rachel, George's girlfriend, left back in England. Would travelling to the United States without her turn out to be the stupidest decision he had ever made?
©2016 George Mahood (P)2019 George Mahood
To Timbuktu for a Haircut
Summary
"Although Timbuktu exists, there is a common belief that it is, in fact, nowhere." Timbuktu: the African city known to legend as a land of scholars, splendor and mystery, a golden age in the Sahara Desert. But to many it is a vaguely recognizable name - a flippant tag for "the most remote place on earth." With this fabled city as his goal, author Rick Antonson began a month-long trek. His initial plan? To get a haircut. Aided by an adventuresome spirit, Rick endures a 45-hour train ride, a swindling travel agent, "Third World, three-lane" roads, rivers, and a flat deck ferry boat before finally reaching Timbuktu. Rick narrates the history of this elusive destination through the teachings of his Malian guide Zak, and encounters with stranded tourists, a camel owner, a riverboat captain, and the people who call Timbuktu home. Antonson’s eloquence and quiet wit highlight the city’s myths - the centuries old capital and traveler’s dream - as well as its realities: A city gripped by poverty, where historic treasures lie close to the sands of destruction. Indeed, some 700,000 ancient manuscripts remain there, endangered. Both a travelogue and a history of a place long forgotten, To Timbuktu for a Haircut emerges as a plea to preserve the past and open cultural dialogues on a global scale. The second edition of this important book outlines the volatile political situations in Timbuktu following the spring 2012 military coup in Mali and the subsequent capture of the city by Islamic extremists. Literally, it is a race against time to save the city’s irreplaceable artifacts, mosques, and monuments, and to understand why Timbuktu’s past is essential to the future of Africa.
©2008 Rick Antonson (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
An Empire of Ice
Summary
Published to coincide with the centenary of the first expeditions to reach the South Pole, An Empire of Ice presents a fascinating new take on Antarctic exploration. Retold with added information, it's the first book to place the famed voyages of Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, his British rivals Robert Scott and Ernest Shackleton, and others in a larger scientific, social, and geopolitical context. Efficient, well prepared, and focused solely on the goal of getting to his destination and back, Amundsen has earned his place in history as the first to reach the South Pole. Scott, meanwhile, has been reduced in the public mind to a dashing incompetent who stands for little more than relentless perseverance in the face of inevitable defeat. An Empire of Ice offers a new perspective on the Antarctic expeditions of the early 20th century by looking at the British efforts for what they actually were: massive scientific enterprises in which reaching the South Pole was but a spectacular sideshow. By focusing on the larger purpose, Edward Larson deepens our appreciation of the explorers' achievements, shares little-known stories, and shows what the Heroic Age of Antarctic discovery was really about.
©2011 Edward J. Larson (P)2011 Tantor
The Warrior Within Me
Summary
The Warrior Within Me is based on a true story and testimony of rescued faith and trusting in God during the terrifying and uncertain times in Nesheiwat's life. By building endurance and resisting temptation through a series of trials, Nesheiwat was able to unlock "The Secret" by decoding biblical principles and through revelation. Unlike any other self-help book that leaves you with scattered pieces to the puzzle and misleading truths, Nesheiwat reveals the reality of the facts, The Real Secret. The Warrior Within Me, is a reflection of the biblical verse "He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." (1 John 4:4.) Atheists come to be by searching and not finding, or by not knowing. Agnostics feel that something higher than them may exist, but are left unsure as to what that higher power may be or if it exists. Finally, some Theists believe they have unlocked the secret of life. Nesheiwat will reveal The Real Secret. The common denominator of all human beings from the beginning of time, is the raging storm within their souls. This battle within one's self can be fought and won by applying The Real Secret. This book was written, after a quest for God began, and the answers came through that terrifying and uncertain seven-year period endured by Nesheiwat. Readers will understand how trust engages faith, the truth about fear, how frequency levels affect your life, and the importance of knowing biblical truth.
©2020 Issa E. Nesheiwat (P)2021 Issa E. Nesheiwat