A Survivors Story

Like many other young American men during the depression-era 1930s, Gene Boyt entered Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps. Later, after receiving an ROTC commission in the Army Engineers and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Missouri School of Mines, Boyt joined the Allied forces in the Pacific Theater. While building runways and infrastructure in the Philippines in 1941, Boyt enjoyed the regal life of an American officer stationed in a tropical paradise--but not for long. When the United States surrendered the Philippines to Japan in April 1942, Boyt became a prisoner of war, suffering unthinkable deprivation and brutality at the hands of the ruthless Japanese guards. One of the last accounts to come from a Bataan survivor, Boyt’s story details the infamous Bataan Death March and his subsequent forty-two months in Japanese internment camps. In this fast-paced narrative, Boyt’s voice conveys the quiet courage of the generation of men who fought and won history’s greatest armed conflict.

When Germany invades Poland in 1939, seventeen year old Severin Fayerman sees his world change forever. His family's factory is seized by the Germans. Inevitably, the Fayermans are arrested and sent to a forced labor camp. Severin, separated from his family, is left alone in captivity. For more than a year, he endures the horrors of Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and other concentration camps, relying on hard work and ingenuity to survive. When the war ends so does his nightmare, but his journey has only just begun. A Survivor's Story is the inspirational memoir of Severin Fayerman, Holocaust survivor and the founder of Baldwin Hardware. His journey from Poland to the United States, from young boy to successful businessman, proves that determination trumps adversity, and that goodness can shine in the darkest of places. His story is the American dream. Severin Fayerman was born in Bendzin, Poland in 1922. During World War II, he survived imprisonment and forced labor at Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps. Reunited with his family after the war, he emigrated to the United States in search of a new life. In 1946 the Fayermans purchased the Baldwin Tool and Die Company in Newark, New Jersey. Together they transformed the small metal forming business into a world-class operation. Today, Baldwin Hardware is a premier manufacturer of locks and hardware, and a testament to Severin's hard work and entrepreneurial spirit.

The basis of the celebrated Paramount Network miniseries starring Michael Shannon and Taylor Kitsch--Waco is the critically-acclaimed, first person account of the siege by Branch Davidian survivor, David Thibodeau. Twenty-five years ago, the FBI staged a deadly raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco. Texas. David Thibodeau survived to tell the story. When he first met the man who called himself David Koresh, David Thibodeau was a drummer in a local a rock band. Though he had never been religious in the slightest, Thibodeau gradually became a follower and moved to the Branch Davidian compound in Waco. He remained there until April 19, 1993, when the compound was stormed and burned to the ground after a 51-day standoff with government authorities. In this compelling account--now with an updated epilogue that revisits remaining survivors--Thibodeau explores why so many people came to believe that Koresh was divinely inspired. We meet the men, women, and children of Mt. Carmel. We get inside the day-to-day life of the community. We also understand Thibodeau's brutally honest assessment of the United States government's actions. The result is a memoir that reads like a thriller, with each page taking us closer to the eventual inferno. Originally published as A Place Called Waco.

Winner of the Best Book With Facts Blue Peter Book Award 2017. Amazing real-life stories about extreme survival.Beautifully presented in a large, paperback format, and fully illustrated in colour throughout, this wonderful anthology is a treat for all the family. Be shocked and amazed by these incredible real-life stories of extreme survival, including . . .The Man Who Sucked Blood from a Shark, a sailor who survived for 133 days on a raft in the Atlantic when his ship was torpedoed, using shark's blood in place of fresh water. The Girl Who Fell From the Sky, a teenager who fell 2 miles from an aeroplane and trekked through the Amazon jungle to safety. The Woman Who Froze to Death - Yet Lived, a woman who was trapped under freezing water for so long her heart stopped. Four hours later, medics managed to warm her blood enough to revive her. Combining classic tales such as Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic voyage, as well as more modern exploits such as the adventurer who inspired the movie 127 Hours, these astonishing stories will be retold by young readers to all of their friends.'A gorgeously presented hardback book, full of incredible real-life stories of extreme survival . . . Ultimately an inspirational book, beautifully illustrated.' Angels and Urchins'True-story fans will love this.' Inis Children's Books Ireland'A wonderful mixture of the scariness of peril and the glorious uplift of survival. It's insightful, inspirational and all absolutely true.' Bookbag

Hope Concordia was a homeless child. She endured horrific acts of violence at the hands of those entrusted to care for her. Hope was molested, raped, and mentally and physically abused by the tender age of five. Hope ran away, only to find refuge on a street corner. At fifteen, she was scouted by an agent and quickly became a professional high-fashion model. Her newfound career took her off the streets but transplanted her into another dimension of international child sexual exploitation. Hope married the same type of man she ran away from as a child, except he was from a very prominent family. She found herself living in a coveted environment known only to the elite of society, enduring the same types of abuse she had experienced on the streets. A divorced mother of two children and without a college education, Hope ended up in a battered women's shelter in an attempt to rebuild her life and stop the cycle of abuse. She graduated from USC with her master's degree while on welfare. Hope radiates inspiration! Her story is one that you will never forget! Soup kitchen to socialite and back again, Hope's resilience is remarkable! "Her positive energy lit up the room". -- D. Evans, OC Register "Effervescent and stunning". -- A. Gutierrez, OC Register "This book has been added to the California state mandated Domestic Violence Advocate Training curriculum. Still Standing will speak to survivors, family, friends, and experts". -- M. Presley, Laura's House "We are so proud of Hope Concordia and her selfless desire to help others. Her compassion and courage exemplify our School's mission to serve, to lead, to help and to heal". -- Pinchas Cohen M.D. dean of USC Davis School

Marjorie Lindholm was a sophomore at Columbine High School. In early April, 1999 she was a cheerleader with big plans. On April 20, 1999, she spent over four hours in a science room during the deadliest siege on an American school in recent history. She watched as her favorite teacher slowly bled to death. She saw her life flash before her eyes. It changed her life. This is her story.

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The epic account of the storm on the summit of Mt. Everest that claimed five lives and left countless more—including Krakauer's—in guilt-ridden disarray. "A harrowing tale of the perils of high-altitude climbing, a story of bad luck and worse judgment and of heartbreaking heroism." —PEOPLE A bank of clouds was assembling on the not-so-distant horizon, but journalist-mountaineer Jon Krakauer, standing on the summit of Mt. Everest, saw nothing that "suggested that a murderous storm was bearing down." He was wrong. By writing Into Thin Air, Krakauer may have hoped to exorcise some of his own demons and lay to rest some of the painful questions that still surround the event. He takes great pains to provide a balanced picture of the people and events he witnessed and gives due credit to the tireless and dedicated Sherpas. He also avoids blasting easy targets such as Sandy Pittman, the wealthy socialite who brought an espresso maker along on the expedition. Krakauer's highly personal inquiry into the catastrophe provides a great deal of insight into what went wrong. But for Krakauer himself, further interviews and investigations only lead him to the conclusion that his perceived failures were directly responsible for a fellow climber's death. Clearly, Krakauer remains haunted by the disaster, and although he relates a number of incidents in which he acted selflessly and even heroically, he seems unable to view those instances objectively. In the end, despite his evenhanded and even generous assessment of others' actions, he reserves a full measure of vitriol for himself. This updated trade paperback edition of Into Thin Air includes an extensive new postscript that sheds fascinating light on the acrimonious debate that flared between Krakauer and Everest guide Anatoli Boukreev in the wake of the tragedy. "I have no doubt that Boukreev's intentions were good on summit day," writes Krakauer in the postscript, dated August 1999. "What disturbs me, though, was Boukreev's refusal to acknowledge the possibility that he made even a single poor decision. Never did he indicate that perhaps it wasn't the best choice to climb without gas or go down ahead of his clients." As usual, Krakauer supports his points with dogged research and a good dose of humility. But rather than continue the heated discourse that has raged since Into Thin Air's denouncement of guide Boukreev, Krakauer's tone is conciliatory; he points most of his criticism at G. Weston De Walt, who coauthored The Climb, Boukreev's version of events. And in a touching conclusion, Krakauer recounts his last conversation with the late Boukreev, in which the two weathered climbers agreed to disagree about certain points. Krakauer had great hopes to patch things up with Boukreev, but the Russian later died in an avalanche on another Himalayan peak, Annapurna I. In 1999, Krakauer received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters--a prestigious prize intended "to honor writers of exceptional accomplishment." According to the Academy's citation, "Krakauer combines the tenacity and courage of the finest tradition of investigative journalism with the stylish subtlety and profound insight of the born writer. His account of an ascent of Mount Everest has led to a general reevaluation of climbing and of the commercialization of what was once a romantic, solitary sport; while his account of the life and death of Christopher McCandless, who died of starvation after challenging the Alaskan wilderness, delves even more deeply and disturbingly into the fascination of nature and the devastating effects of its lure on a young and curious mind."

One of nine survivors of the attack on the Branch Davidian compound in 1993 describes how he came to join the religious community and offers an eyewitness account of the tragedy.