brenzi's 2013 Non-Fiction

This year I'd like to think that I will make a dent in the non-fiction that I already own but, although I do own this first one, it's an eBook that I read on my iPad so that doesn't help empty my shelves.



We Die Alone by Davod Howarth 4 stars

In this clandestine spy-mission-gone-wrong, to say the protagonist had nine lives would be a bit of an understatement. As a matter of fact, I had to confirm with some outside sources that this non-fiction account of a WWII reconnaissance was actually true because this story is just absolutely unbelievable.

In 1943, a team of Norwegians are trained by British intelligence to take a fishing boat from the Shetland Islands to German-occupied Norway, where they will train the resistance. The mission is unsuccessful and all but one of the participants are killed or captured. The book documents the unlikely survival of Jan Baalsrud. He manages, with the help of many, completely selfless Norwegians from the lonely, rural Arctic North, to make his way across the frozen tundra that is Norway to freedom and safety in Sweden. The story of his journey is loaded with on the edge of your seat suspense as he fights off not only the Germans, who managed to shoot off the toes on one foot, but bone-chilling cold, snow blindness, and a 300 foot fall on a snowy plateau until he finally collapsed in a small cabin to the utter shock of the woman residing within. That’s when the brave villagers took it upon themselves to help this ex-patriot get to Sweden and safety. Before that happens, Baalsrud will spend a month outside in the elements, either in a cave or a paper hut after being hauled up the sheer cliffs from the village to the plateau. His survival is nothing short of unbelievable. Read it yourself for the thrill a minute ride and for the insight into a brave, selfless people under the yoke of Nazi occupation. Highly recommended.

1: I'd like to think that I will make a dent in the non-fiction that I already own
An excellent goal! I'm making an effort to resist temptation this year.

That looks like quite a book. I hadn't heard of it. Oh, 1955 publication. How did you hear of it?

Hi Katherine, I think it was a Kindle Daily Deal almost a year ago now. It seems to still be pretty well-known, even after so many years though. It's quite a story.

We Die Alone does sound really interesting. I'll have to add it to my list.

I hope you enjoy it Meredith.

River of Doubt by Candice Millard 4.5 stars

”Suddenly the river made a sharp turn, and when they rounded the bend, the men saw a seething cauldron of white water, the prelude to world-class rapids. Surprised by the stark transformation of their placid river, they quickly drove their canoes ashore so that they could decide what to do next from the relative safety of the bank…Stretching before them for nearly a mile was a series of rapids. The river sped ‘with enormous velocity’ through rocks of friable sandstone that had been ‘deeply cut out, smashed to pieces and thrown one on top of the other by the rushing forth of the waters.’” (Page 174)

In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt failed to win an unprecedented third term in the White House. By 1913, he had organized a group of men who would accompany him in an exploration of the thousand mile long River of Doubt through Brazil’s Amazon rainforest. In addition to his son Kermit, he was accompanied by Candido Mariano da Silva Rondon, Brazil’s most famous explorer, naturalist George Cherrie and a team of South American camaradas.

Candice Millard did a remarkable job bringing to light the tremendous feat accomplished by the Roosevelt expedition. Against improbable odds and in a way that left the experts in disbelief, Roosevelt and his crew faced mind-boggling adversity including starvation, disease, drowning, venomous snakes, unremitting whitewater rapids and even murder. And the possibility of being attacked by Indians, evidence of which is just about everywhere they turned. Add to the mix that Roosevelt himself was near death during a good portion of the trip and you have the makings of an astonishing bio.

It’s one thing to tell an adventure story like this in dry non-fiction prose. It’s quite another to put all the facts together in a narrative that fairly sings and has the reader on the edge of their seat from beginning to end. That’s what Millard has done: turned a presidential biography into a page turning thriller, and oh what a ride it is. Very highly recommended.

6: I read it in 2011, settled in a comfortable chair with coffee... the best way to explore the Amazon. I have The Destiny of the Republic lined up for this year.

It reminded me in many ways of The Lost City of Z. Have you read that one?

8: Yes, I read them both at about the same time.