Books like The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride

01

Into the Wild

Jon Krakauer · Biography

Into the Wild is Jon Krakauer's account of Christopher McCandless, a twenty-four-year-old who graduated from Emory University in 1990, gave his savings to charity, abandoned his car and possessions, and spent two years drifting through the American West before hitchhiking into the Alaskan wilderness in April 1992.

A kindred history read.

02

Into Thin Air

Jon Krakauer · Memoir

Into Thin Air is Jon Krakauer's firsthand account of the May 1996 Everest expedition that killed eight climbers in a single afternoon.

Both dig into survival.

03

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

Alfred Lansing · History

In 1914, Ernest Shackleton led twenty-seven men into the Weddell Sea on a ship called the Endurance with the goal of crossing Antarctica on foot.

Both dig into survival.

04

Killers of the Flower Moon

David Grann · History

In the 1920s, members of the Osage Nation in northeastern Oklahoma were being murdered.

A kindred history read.

05

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

Daniel James Brown · History

The Boys in the Boat is the story of the University of Washington crew team that won the gold medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, defeating Nazi Germany's squad on Hitler's home course.

A kindred history read.

06

All Quiet on the Western Front

Erich Maria Remarque · History

All Quiet on the Western Front follows Paul Bäumer, a young German soldier who enlists with his classmates during the First World War after being swept up in patriotic speeches.

Both dig into survival.

07

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West

Dee Brown · History

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, published in 1970, is Dee Brown's account of the systematic dispossession of Native American peoples across the American West between 1860 and 1890.

Both dig into survival.

08

Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II's Most Dramatic Mission

Hampton Sides · History

Ghost Soldiers tells the story of the January 1945 raid on the Cabanatuan prisoner-of-war camp in the Philippines — a mission to rescue 513 American and Allied prisoners, survivors of the Bataan Death March, before the retreating Japanese army could execute them.

Both dig into survival.

09

Gulag: A History

Anne Applebaum · History

Anne Applebaum's Gulag is the first comprehensive English-language history of the Soviet forced labor camp system, drawing on KGB archives opened briefly after 1991, survivor memoirs, and interviews with former prisoners and guards.

Both dig into survival.

10

In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette

Hampton Sides · History

In 1879, the USS Jeannette sailed from San Francisco into the Arctic under the command of Lieutenant George Washington De Long, on a mission to reach the North Pole.

Both dig into survival.

11

Lost in Shangri-La

Mitchell Zuckoff · History

Lost in Shangri-La tells the story of a 1945 military plane crash in the Baliem Valley of New Guinea — a hidden highland region so remote and unknown to the outside world that the press called it Shangri-La.

Both dig into survival.

12

The Gulag Archipelago

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn · History

The Gulag Archipelago is Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's monumental account of the Soviet forced-labor camp system.

Both dig into survival.