Alive Inside The Wreck

From his name to his college transcript to his literary style, Nathanael West was self-invented. Born Nathan Weinstein, the author of the classics Miss Lonelyhearts (1933) and The Day of the Locust (1939) was an uncompromising artist obsessed with writing the perfect novel. He pursued his passion from New York to California, flirting dangerously with the bleak, faux-glamour of Hollywood as the country suffered through the grim realities of the Great Depression. At the center of a circle of vigorous young literary writers that included Malcolm Cowley, William Carlos Williams, F. Scott Fitzgerald, S. J. Perelman, and Dashiell Hammett, West rose to become one of the most original literary talents of the twentieth centuryan accomplished yet regrettably underappreciated master of the short lyric novel.West was finally starting to enjoy financial stability as a Hollywood screenwriter when he died in the California desert. A notoriously bad driver, he was racing back from a vacation in Mexico with his young bride of eight months when he crashed at full speed into another car. He was dead at the age of 37.For this book, the first biography on West alone in over 40 years, Joe Woodward combed the archives at The Huntington Library and the John Hay Library at Brown University. At both he had access to personal letters, photographs, unpublished manuscripts and corrected typescripts as well as seldom-heard taped interviews with S. J. Perelman, Dalton Trumbo, Matthew Josephson and others.

On 20 August 2008, Spanair flight JKK5022, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-82 departed Madrid Barajas Airport on its way to Gran Canaria Airport.During take-off the aircraft crashed, due to pilot errors, near the end of runway 36L, killing 154 of the 172 people on board.

Stranded in the middle of nowhere, you have to fight to survive! When the members of Junior Action News Team crash land in the Alaskan backwoods, one thing is clear: not everyone is going to survive. No cell phones. No internet. Their supplies are limited, as is their knowledge of the wilderness. Part of the group wants to wait it out. Other wants to search for help. But above all they must stay alive!

"This is a gripping and heartrending recollection of the harrowing brink-of-death experience that propelled survivor Roberto Canessa to become one of the world's leading pediatric cardiologists. Canessa played a key role in safeguarding his fellow survivors, eventually trekking with a companion across the hostile mountain range for help. This fine line between life and death became the catalyst for the rest of his life. This uplifting tale of hope and determination, solidarity and ingenuity gives vivid insight into a world famous story. Canessa also draws a unique and fascinating parallel between his work as a doctor performing arduous heart surgeries on infants and unborn babies and the difficult life-changing decisions he was forced to make in the Andes."--Provided by publisher.