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Peter Zheutlin's thoroughly researched account will make you wish you'd been around to catch a glimpse of the extraordinary woman…
as she went wheeling by. --Bill Littlefield, National Public Radio's Only A GameUntil 1894 there were no female sport stars, no product endorsement deals, and no young mothers with the chutzpah to circle the globe on a bicycle. Annie Londonderry changed all of that. When Annie left Boston in June of that year, she was a brash young lady with a 42-pound bicycle, a revolver, a change of underwear, and a dream of freedom. She was also a feisty mother of three who had become the center of what one newspaper called "one of the most novel wagers ever made": a high-stakes bet between two wealthy merchants that a woman could not ride around the world on a bicycle. The epic journey that followed took the connection between athletics and commercialism to dizzying new heights, and turned Annie Londonderry into a symbol of women's equality. A vastly entertaining blend of social history, high adventure, and maverick marketing, Around the World on Two Wheels is an unforgettable portrait of courage, imagination, and tenacity. "Annie was a remarkable woman and well worth getting to know." --Booklist"A wonderful telling of one of the most intriguing, offbeat, and until now, lost chapters in the history of cycling." --David Herlihy, author of Bicycle: The History "A pleasant, affectionate portrait of a free spirit who pedaled her way out of Victorian constraints." --Kirkus Reviews"[A] charming and informative book." --Cape Cod Times"[An] incredible story. . .[a] fascinating book." --NextReads "[A] stirring tale. . .not only a must read, but a must have." --Western Writers of America Roundup Magazine"[A] remarkable saga." --The Winston-Salem (NC) Journal"[R]ead[s]. . .like a novel." --The Columbia (SC) State"[M]eticulously researched. . .illuminat[es] the feeling of a bygone era." --The Portsmouth (NH) Wire Peter Zheutlin has been chasing the story of his great-grandaunt Annie Londonderry for more than four years. He is an avid cyclist and a freelance journalist whose work appears regularly in the Boston Globe and the Christian Science Monitor. He has also written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, AARP Magazine, Bicycling, the New England Quarterly, and other publications. He lives in Needham, Massachusetts.Madoff's Other Secret: Love, Money, Bernie, and Me
By Sheryl Weinstein. 2009
Nobody knew Bernie like I did, and nobody knows about me…Sheryl Weinstein met Bernie Madoff when she was just shy…
of forty, and went on to have a twenty-year secret, intimate relationship with the man now known as an evil mastermind, a villain of the greatest proportions. It was 1988 and Sheryl was facing a huge dilemma. Bernie Madoff was paying her a great deal of attention. She was in the midst of a rocky marriage and feeling vulnerable, when the powerful Wall Street mogul began making overtures. As a successful CPA and head of a major charitable organization, she had a lot to lose. She directed him to take things slowly. Over the next five years, there were business meetings over lunch, followed by intimate dinners in hotel rooms and finally, private moments that for a time seemed intensely satisfying to them both. "I'm not to be trusted," he once told her casually. She ignored it, having no idea how prophetic those words would be. After all, her relationship with Bernie was passionate and profound. She felt desirable. She was the one nobody knew about, with the window into the real man. So careful about investing her money, when the SEC cleared him in 1992 she decided to get in all the way--with her heart, her soul--and her financial future.Sheryl was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She couldn't possibly have imagined the devastation that would befall her. Learning the truth was shattering on so many levels. Many books are being written about the scale of Madoff's fraud, but until now, nothing has shown the man through private eyes. Sheryl Weinstein's riveting story reveals a Madoff who will shock and surprise you. From the boardroom to the bedroom, in each other, the two found something that had been lacking in their own lives. It's a story with tragic overtones--a drama that only now could find a devastating conclusion.Trickster Travels: A Sixteenth-Century Muslim Between Worlds
By Natalie Zemon Davis. 2006
An engrossing study of Leo Africanus and his famous book, which introduced Africa to European readersAl-Hasan al-Wazzan--born in Granada to…
a Muslim family that in 1492 went to Morocco, where he traveled extensively on behalf of the sultan of Fez--is known to historians as Leo Africanus, author of the first geography of Africa to be published in Europe (in 1550). He had been captured by Christian pirates in the Mediterranean and imprisoned by the pope, then released, baptized, and allowed a European life of scholarship as the Christian writer Giovanni Leone. In this fascinating new book, the distinguished historian Natalie Zemon Davis offers a virtuoso study of the fragmentary, partial, and often contradictory traces that al-Hasan al-Wazzan left behind him, and a superb interpretation of his extraordinary life and work. In Trickster Travels, Davis describes all the sectors of her hero's life in rich detail, scrutinizing the evidence of al-Hasan's movement between cultural worlds; the Islamic and Arab traditions, genres, and ideas available to him; and his adventures with Christians and Jews in a European community of learned men and powerful church leaders. In depicting the life of this adventurous border-crosser, Davis suggests the many ways cultural barriers are negotiated and diverging traditions are fused.A Life Wild and Perilous: Mountain Men and the Paths to the Pacific
By Robert M. Utley. 1822
Early in the nineteenth century, the mountain men emerged as a small but distinctive group whose knowledge and experience of…
the trans-Mississippi West extended the national consciousness to continental dimensions. Though Lewis and Clark blazed a narrow corridor of geographical reality, the West remained largely terra incognita until trappers and traders--Jim Bridger, Kit Carson, Tom Fitzpatrick, Jedediah Smith--opened paths through the snow-choked mountain wilderness. They opened the way west to Fremont and played a major role in the pivotal years of 1845-1848 when Texas was annexed, the Oregon question was decided, and the Mexican War ended with the Southwest and California in American hands, the Pacific Ocean becoming our western boundary.Tales from the Edge: True Adventures in Alaska
By Larry Kaniut. 2013
From the Klondike to the Bering Sea, from Alaska's bounty that brought fortunes to some to its wilderness that claimed…
the lives of others, Tales from the Edge explores the myth, beauty, and peril of the arctic landscape. Editor Larry Kaniut brings together some of the world's best outdoor adventure writers to celebrate the land and the people who have measured themselves against it.Tales from the Edge is a celebration of Alaska featuring such notable contributors as Peter Jenkins, Spike Walker, Jay Hammond, Nick Jans, Dana Stabenow, Larry Kaniut, and more. Tales from the Edge will stir the soul and imagination of every armchair adventurer.The Millionaire and the Mummies: Theodore Davis’s Gilded Age in the Valley of the Kings
By John M. Adams. 2013
Egypt, The Valley of the Kings, 1905: An American robber baron peers through the hole he has cut in an…
ancient tomb wall and discovers the richest trove of golden treasure ever seen in Egypt. At the start of the twentieth century, Theodore Davis was the most famous archaeologist in the world; his career turned tomb-robbing and treasure-hunting into a science. Using six of Davis's most important discoveries—from the female Pharaoh Hatshepsut's sarcophagus to the exquisite shabti statuettes looted from the Egyptian Museum not too long ago—as a lens around which to focus his quintessentially American rags-to-riches tale, Adams chronicles the dizzying rise of a poor country preacher's son who, through corruption and fraud, amassed tremendous wealth in Gilded Age New York and then atoned for his ruthless career by inventing new standards for systematic excavation in the field of archaeology. Davis found a record eighteen tombs in the Valley and, breaking with custom, gave all the spoils of his discoveries to museums. A confederate of Boss Tweed, friend of Teddy Roosevelt, and rival of J. P. Morgan, the colorful "American Lord Carnarvon" shared his Newport mansion with his Rembrandts, his wife, and his mistress. The only reason Davis has been forgotten by history to a large extent is probably the fact that he stopped just short of King Tutankhamen's tomb, the discovery of which propelled Howard Carter (Davis's erstwhile employee) to worldwide fame just a few short years later. Drawing on rare and never-before-published archival material, The Millionaire and the Mummies, the first biography of Theodore Davis ever written rehabilitates a tarnished image through a thrilling tale of crime and adventure, filled with larger-than-life characters, unimaginable treasures, and exotic settings.Above the Clouds: The Diaries of a High-Altitude Mountaineer
By Anatoli Boukreev. 1996
A breathtaking and lavishly illustrated autobiography in essays on Anatoli Boukreev, the late world-famous mountaineer and author of The Climb.When…
Anatoli Boukreev died on the slopes of Annapurna on Christmas day, 1997, the world lost one of the greatest adventurers of our time.In Above the Clouds, both the man and his incredible climbs on Mt. McKinley, K2, Makalu, Manaslu, and Everest-including his diary entries on the infamous 1996 disaster, written shortly after his return-are immortalized. There also are minute technical details about the skill of mountain climbing, as well as personal reflections on what life means to someone who risks it every day. Fully illustrated with gorgeous color photos, Above the Clouds is a unique and breathtaking look at the world from its most remote peaks.In his fifth book, John Hailman recounts the adventures and misadventures he experienced during a lifetime of international travel. From…
Oman to Indonesia, from sandstorms and food poisoning to gangsters and at least one jealous husband, Hailman explores the cultures and court systems of faraway countries. The international story begins in Paris as a young Hailman, a student at La Sorbonne, experiences the romance and excitement one expects from the City of Lights. Years later Hailman returns to France, to Interpol Headquarters in Lyon where he received his international law certificate from the National School for Magistrates. Traveling the world as a representative for the US Justice Department, Hailman encountered criminals and conspiracies, including a plot in Ossetia, Georgia, to hijack his helicopter and kidnap him. From his time as a prosecutor are tales of three very different Islamic cultures in the colorful societies and legal systems of Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. Hailman also travels to the chaotic world of the former Soviet Union where, at the time of his visit, a new world of old countries was trying to rediscover independent pasts. He explores the tiny country of Moldova and the beautiful and picturesque Republic of Georgia, and visits Russia during the brief period democracy was flowering and the nation was experimenting with a new jury trial system. Viewing his adventures through the lens of laws and customs, Hailman is able to give unique insight to the countries he visits. With each new adventure in Foreign Missions of an American Prosecutor, John Hailman shares his passion for travel and his fascination with other cultures.The Enchanted Quest of Dana and Ginger Lamb
By Julie Huffman-Klinkowitz, Jerome Klinkowitz. 2006
Bestselling authors, sensational lecturers, documentary filmmakers, amateur archaeologists, spies for FDR—Dana and Ginger Lamb led the life of Indiana Jones…
long before the movie icon was ever scripted. “We blaze the trail,” Ginger said, “and the scientists follow.” The Enchanted Quest of Dana and Ginger Lamb is the first biography of this captivating, entrepreneurial couple. In southern California, they started married life in 1933 by building a canoe. With only $4.10 in their pockets, they paddled to Central America and through the Panama Canal. Three years later they returned triumphant, bearing a photographic record of the amazing trek that made them famous. After releasing their bestselling book, Enchanted Vagabonds, the two became exactly that. They relentlessly lectured for the public and mooned for the media until they were able to fund more exotic voyages to remote jungles and rivers. So convincing were they on the circuit that their most powerful fan, President Franklin Roosevelt, coerced J. Edgar Hoover into hiring the Lambs as spies in Mexico. After World War II, they launched their Quest for the Lost City, which yielded another book and documentary. Drawing on historical records, the Lambs' books and letters, and recently declassified espionage documents, biographers Julie Huffman-klinkowitz and Jerome Klinkowitz show how the Lambs succeeded in marketing their conquests and films to armchair explorers around the world and how they became, in popular imagination, the quintessential American adventurers.Aviation pioneer Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie (1902–1975) was once one of the most famous women in America. In the 1930s, her…
words and photographs were splashed across the front pages of newspapers across the nation. The press labeled her “second only to Amelia Earhart among America's women pilots,” and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt named her among the “eleven women whose achievements make it safe to say that the world is progressing.” Omlie began her career in the early 1920s when aviation was unregulated and open to those daring enough to take it on, male or female. She earned the first commercial pilot's license issued to a woman and became a successful air racer. During the New Deal, she became the first woman to hold an executive position in federal aeronautics. In Walking on Air, author Janann Sherman presents a thorough and entertaining biography of Omlie. In 1920, the Des Moines, Iowa, native bought herself a Curtiss JN-4D airplane and began learning how to fly and perform stunts with her future husband, pilot Vernon Omlie. She danced the Charleston on the top wing, hung by her teeth below the plane, and performed parachute jumps in the Phoebe Fairgrave Flying Circus. Using interviews, contemporary newspaper articles, archived radio transcripts, and other archival materials, Sherman creates a complex portrait of a daring aviator struggling for recognition in the early days of flight and a detailed examination of how American flying changed over the twentieth century.The Last Dive: A Father and Son's Fatal Descent into the Ocean's Depths
By Bernie Chowdhury. 2000
“Superbly written and action-packed, The Last Dive ranks with such adventure classics as The Perfect Storm and Into Thin Air.”—Tampa…
TribuneSpurred on by a fatal combination of obsession and ambition, Chris and Chrisy Rouse, an experienced father-son scuba diving team, hoped to achieve wide-spread recognition for their outstanding and controversial diving skills by solving the secrets of a mysterious, undocumented, World War II German U-boat that lay only a half day’s mission from New York Harbor.The Rouses found the ultimate cost of chasing their personal challenge: death from what divers dread the most—decompression sickness, or “the bends.” In this gripping recounting of their tragedy, author Bernie Chowdhury, himself an expert diver, explores the thrill-seeking, high-risk world of deep sea diving, its legendary figures, most celebrated triumphs, and notorious tragedies.Life on the Mississippi: The Authorized Uniform Edition
By Mark Twain. 2015
A stirring tribute to America&’s mightiest river by one of its greatest authors Before Samuel Clemens became Mark Twain, world-famous…
satirist and the acclaimed creator of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, he trained to be a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River. In this captivating memoir and travelogue, Twain recounts his apprenticeship under legendary captain Horace Bixby, an exacting mentor who teaches his charge how to navigate the ever-changing waterway. The colorful details of life on the river—from the reversals of fortune suffered by riverboat gamblers to the feuds waged by towns seeking to profit from the steamboat trade—fascinate Twain, and in his hands become the stuff of legend. Years later, as a passenger on a voyage from St. Louis to New Orleans, he vividly describes the stunning changes wrought by the Civil War and the steady advance of the railroads. A valuable piece of history and a revealing look at the origins of a national treasure, Life on the Mississippi is a true classic of American literature. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.SOLO: What running across mountains taught me about life
By Jenny Tough. 2022
'Jenny Tough writes with the same talent, imagination, and sheer courage that she displays in her athletic endeavours. This book…
will broaden the horizons of all who venture between its covers.' - Emily Chappell, author of Where There's a Will'I love that SOLO is part-self help and part adventure story. Jenny shows us all that the journey to self-belief comes with just as many ups and downs as the mountains she traverses and that, with a little trust in ourselves (and a few good cups of coffee) the next seemingly insurmountable pass is never beyond our reach.' - Anna McNuff, author of Bedtime Adventure Stories for Grown UpsJenny Tough is an endurance athlete who's best known for running and cycling in some of world's most challenging events - achieving accolades that are an inspiration to outdoor adventurers everywhere. But SOLO tells the story of a much more personal project: Jenny's quest to come to terms with feelings and emotions that were holding her back. Like runners at any level, she knew already that running made her feel better, and like so many of us, she knew that completing goals independently was empowering, too. So she set herself an audacious objective: to run - solo, unsupported, on her own - across mountain ranges on six continents, starting with one of the most remote locations on Earth in Kyrgystan. SOLO chronicles Jenny's journey every step of the way across the Tien Shan (Asia), the High Atlas (Africa), the Bolivian Andes (South America), the Southern Alps (Oceania), the Canadian Rockies (North America) and the Transylvanian Alps (Europe), as she learns lessons in self-esteem, resilience, bravery and so much more. What Jenny's story tells us most of all is that setting out to do things solo - whether the ambitious or the everyday - can be invigorating, encouraging and joyful. And her call to action to find strength, confidence and self-belief in everything we do will inspire and motivate.SOLO: What running across mountains taught me about life
By Jenny Tough. 2022
'Jenny Tough writes with the same talent, imagination, and sheer courage that she displays in her athletic endeavours. This book…
will broaden the horizons of all who venture between its covers.' - Emily Chappell, author of Where There's a Will'I love that SOLO is part-self help and part adventure story. Jenny shows us all that the journey to self-belief comes with just as many ups and downs as the mountains she traverses and that, with a little trust in ourselves (and a few good cups of coffee) the next seemingly insurmountable pass is never beyond our reach.' - Anna McNuff, author of Bedtime Adventure Stories for Grown UpsJenny Tough is an endurance athlete who's best known for running and cycling in some of world's most challenging events - achieving accolades that are an inspiration to outdoor adventurers everywhere. But SOLO tells the story of a much more personal project: Jenny's quest to come to terms with feelings and emotions that were holding her back. Like runners at any level, she knew already that running made her feel better, and like so many of us, she knew that completing goals independently was empowering, too. So she set herself an audacious objective: to run - solo, unsupported, on her own - across mountain ranges on six continents, starting with one of the most remote locations on Earth in Kyrgystan. SOLO chronicles Jenny's journey every step of the way across the Tien Shan (Asia), the High Atlas (Africa), the Bolivian Andes (South America), the Southern Alps (Oceania), the Canadian Rockies (North America) and the Transylvanian Alps (Europe), as she learns lessons in self-esteem, resilience, bravery and so much more. What Jenny's story tells us most of all is that setting out to do things solo - whether the ambitious or the everyday - can be invigorating, encouraging and joyful. And her call to action to find strength, confidence and self-belief in everything we do will inspire and motivate.The 50 Greatest Explorers in History
By Michelle Rosenberg. 2022
This is a book about one of the first recorded pilgrims who climbed Mount Sinai; it’s about Amelia Earhart, the…
famous American aviator whose story and disappearance continues to capture the world’s imagination. It’s the story of a doomed expedition to discover the North West Passage, and the tale of Marco Polo, who remained at the court of the Kublai Khan for an incredible 17 years. The 50 Greatest Explorers in History brings to life the pioneers in aviation flying thousands of miles with the most basic of maps in open cockpits, exposed to the elements and the unrelenting smell of petrol fumes. They travel by steamboat, on horseback, by rickshaw, motorbike, train, swim with piranhas, embark into black nothingness in new spacecraft, explore by Jeep, yachts, tea boats and elephants, disguise themselves as men, take canoes and use innovative, advanced technological scuba equipment. Going where in many cases, no man or woman had ever gone before, some women featured in this books were often denied respect, acknowledgment, or recognition and they determined to break the ‘men's club’ mentality of global exploration from which they were excluded.Hush of the Land: A Lifetime in the Bob Marshall Wilderness
By Arnold Smoke Elser, Eva-Maria Maggi. 2023
This inspirational memoir chronicles the six-decade quest of packer and outfitter Arnold &“Smoke&” Elser to protect wild lands by bringing…
thousands of people deep into the mountains of Montana on horseback. With limited financial means and while still in college, the young man from Ohio decided against a promising career in forestry and chose instead to share his love of wilderness with city dwellers by working as a professional outfitter. Based on hundreds of hours of interviews, Hush of the Land tells the captivating story of Elser&’s early days as a packer in the Bob Marshall Wilderness and Bitterroot Mountains. Share the joys and thrills of summer rides, harrowing grizzly bear encounters, fishing in clear mountain streams, and many nights around a campfire within some of the West&’s last wild lands. In this lively narrative, Elser recounts how his testimony for the Wilderness Act, and the fight to preserve and expand Montana&’s wilderness lands, influenced his career as an outfitter and educator and gave him a voice at the center of Montana&’s conservation movement.Discover Florida’s unique places across time through writings from history How has Florida’s land changed across five centuries? What…
has stayed the same, and what remains only in memory? In Tracing Florida Journeys, Leslie Poole delves into the stories of well-known explorers and travelers who came to the peninsula and wrote about their experiences, looking at their words and the paths they took from the perspective of today. In these pages, John Muir and Harriet Beecher Stowe write about their visits to Florida, reflecting their expectations of a place that was touted to be “paradise.” John James Audubon finds riches of bird life in the Keys. Zora Neale Hurston travels to turpentine camps and sawmills documenting the stories and music of workers and residents. Jonathan Dickinson and Stephen Crane recount shipwrecks along a sparsely populated coastline. Members of Hernando de Soto’s violent 1539 expedition of conquest describe their struggles with dense swamps, forests, and rivers, and resistance from the Native people they exploited. Using journals and articles by these and other authors that date back to the early European exploration of the region, Poole retraces their steps. The land they write about is often hard to imagine in today’s Florida, a top destination for tourists filled with almost 22 million residents. These stories show the evolving history of the state and the richness of its natural resources. Poole’s comparisons also point to the people who have been displaced and the ecosystems that have been dramatically altered by exploration and development. Highlighting the Florida that was and the Florida that exists now, Poole brings together historical research, interviews with experts, and her personal experiences to tell a revealing story of the state’s natural history. Funding for this publication was provided through a grant from Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent those of Florida Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.The Moth and the Mountain: A True Story of Love, War, and Everest
By Ed Caesar. 2020
&“An outstanding book.&” —The Wall Street Journal * &“Gripping at every turn.&” —Outside * &“A hell of a ride.&” —The…
Times (London)An extraordinary true story about one man&’s attempt to salve the wounds of war and save his own soul through an audacious adventure. In the 1930s, as official government expeditions set their sights on conquering Mount Everest, a little-known World War I veteran named Maurice Wilson conceives his own crazy, beautiful plan: he will fly a plane from England to Everest, crash-land on its lower slopes, then become the first person to reach its summit—completely alone. Wilson doesn&’t know how to climb. He barely knows how to fly. But he has the right plane, the right equipment, and a deep yearning to achieve his goal. In 1933, he takes off from London in a Gipsy Moth biplane with his course set for the highest mountain on earth. Wilson&’s eleven-month journey to Everest is wild: full of twists, turns, and daring. Eventually, in disguise, he sneaks into Tibet. His icy ordeal is just beginning.Wilson is one of the Great War&’s heroes, but also one of its victims. His hometown of Bradford in northern England is ripped apart by the fighting. So is his family. He barely survives the war himself. Wilson returns from the conflict unable to cope with the sadness that engulfs him. He begins a years-long trek around the world, burning through marriages and relationships, leaving damaged lives in his wake. When he finally returns to England, nearly a decade after he first left, he finds himself falling in love once more—this time with his best friend&’s wife—before depression overcomes him again. He emerges from his funk with a crystalline ambition. He wants to be the first man to stand on top of the world. Wilson believes that Everest can redeem him.This is the &“rollicking&” (The Economist) tale of an adventurer unlike any you have ever encountered: complex, driven, wry, haunted, and fully alive. He is a man written out of the history books—dismissed as an eccentric and gossiped about because of rumors of his transvestism. The Moth and the Mountain restores Maurice Wilson to his rightful place in the annals of Everest and tells an unforgettable story about the power of the human spirit in the face of adversity.Adrift: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Survival at Sea
By Tami Oldham Ashcraft. 2018
New York Times Bestseller The heart-stopping memoir, soon to be a major motion picture starring Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin,…
and directed by Baltasar Kormákur (Everest).“An inspirational and empowering read.”—Shailene WoodleyYoung and in love, their lives ahead of them, Tami Oldham and her fiancé Richard Sharp set sail from Tahiti under brilliant blue skies, with Tami’s hometown of San Diego as their ultimate destination. But the two free spirits and avid sailors couldn’t anticipate that less than two weeks into their voyage, they would sail directly into one of the most catastrophic hurricanes in recorded history. They found themselves battling pounding rain, waves the size of skyscrapers, and 140 knot winds. Richard tethered himself to the boat and sent Tami below to safety, and then all went eerily quiet. Hours later, Tami awakened to find the boat in ruins, and Richard nowhere in sight.Adrift is the story of Tami’s miraculous forty-one-day journey to safety on a ravaged boat with no motor and no masts, and with little hope for rescue. It’s a tale of love and survival on the high seas-- an unforgettable story about resilience of the human spirit, and the transcendent power of love.Mud, Sweat, and Tears: The Autobiography
By Bear Grylls. 2012
“Bear Grylls is a veritable superhero….The former UK Special Forces paratrooper has braved the world’s harshest environments.” —Hampton Sides, Outside…
Magazine“Bear Grylls is one tough, crazy dude.” —Washington PostTHE THRILLING #1-BESTSELLING MEMOIR BY THE ADVENTURE LEGEND AND STAR OF NBC'S RUNNING WILD WITH BEAR GRYLLSBear Grylls has always sought the ultimate in adventure. Growing up on a remote island off of Britain's windswept coast, he was taught by his father to sail and climb at an early age. Inevitably, it wasn't long before the young explorer was sneaking out to lead all-night climbing expeditions.As a teenager at Eton College, Bear found his identity and purpose through both mountaineering and martial arts. These passions led him into the foothills of the mighty Himalayas and to a karate grandmaster's remote training camp in Japan, an experience that soon helped him earn a second-degree black belt. Returning home, he embarked upon the notoriously grueling selection course for the British Special Forces to join the elite Special Air Service unit 21 SAS—a journey that would push him to the very limits of physical and mental endurance.Then, disaster. Bear broke his back in three places in a horrific free-fall parachuting accident in Africa. It was touch and go whether he would walk again, according to doctors. However, only eighteen months later, a twenty-three-year-old Bear became one of the youngest climbers to scale Mount Everest, the world's highest summit. But this was just the beginning of his many extraordinary adventures. . . .Known and admired by millions as the star of Man vs. Wild, Bear Grylls has survived where few would dare to go. Now, for the first time, Bear tells the story of his action-packed life. Gripping, moving, and wildly exhilarating, Mud, Sweat, and Tears is a must-read for adrenaline junkies and armchair explorers alike.