A great story, a great read, a great adventure
597425
The Culprit is a wonderful rollercoaster ride filled with satire, similes, metaphors, and a sprinkling of alliteration.  Although the first couple pages are rather ponderous, the story quickly picks up into a whirlwind of emotional highs and lows as we meet Professor McDuff whose good intentions morph into a deadly game of high explosives and innocent lives.  As quickly as we are appalled by the professor's actions the story turns and you find yourself urging him on to his next and hopefully last adventure.  I found the story well written, engaging, entertaining, and surprising in many ways.  The author displays his wit and humor with a few of the more hilarious analogies and the sharp repertoire between the characters.  I'm looking forward to the author's next installment of professor McDuffs's trials and adventures.  Read the book...you won't be disappointed.
925113
This book is fantastic.  The author takes the reader along on a great adventure.  I felt like I was with him every step of the way and at the same time my feeling for adventure in my future was rekindled.
This book and story is for anybody that has enjoyed, either vicariously or in the first person, adventures of mountain climbing, long tour bicycle riding, going to new places, or just excitement in life.
The story also gives a picture of daily life and of those that exist and those that do, with neither being right or wrong. There is something in this book for everybody.
222979
Stanley Alpert's book left me breathless - an incredible and exciting story.  I was fully caught up in his kidnapping, despite knowing that he ultimately survived it.  This is a terrific story & a great read.  And more.

Alpert devotes the second half of the book to the dogged, gritty, police work that caught his kidnappers within mere days.  He describes the truly selfless heroism of hard work - and it is a wonder to read.

But the greatest delight in this book may be the character of Alpert himself.  The truth is, he survived because of who he was - a funny, self-deprecating, straight-talking guy.  Alpert showed his kidnappers a unique mixture of humor and integrity - and they just liked him.  I did too.  Alpert makes the struggle of his survival achingly clear - he had to fight at every moment to remain calm, and connected, honest, and likeable.  His was a superhuman effort to be casual.  It is a fascinating story
4305687
A great adventure story that you don't want to end. Fortunately there is a sequel and I can't wait to purchase it.
460150
This was a great read... I couldn't put it down
1205301
A great adventure, very absorbing and fun. Very well researched historically, good character depth. It's one of the books I wish would go on forever.
1930716
This novel is so engaging,that you don't notice time slipping by while you are reading it. You simply want to know what happens next. You follow the main character, the Elf girl Elgiva as she struggles through the story, with her enemies and inner demons. You are glued to the page when she walks through an evil forest.  You meet the other characters as you read along, some charming, others endearing and some quite frightening. This is a fantasy, an adventure and a love story. This is a great read.<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Lorestone/dp/1844264327/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Lorestone</a>
4471226
Is your idea of a great read one where the characters are interesting and the story is well told? If it is, you're going to love this book. It's a fast moving story filled with great characters, exciting situations and unexpected plot twists. Michael has captured the underlying style of a great space adventure in this imaginative and well written novel. Highly recommended.
992358
I too could not put this book down, as an adventure story it is up there in spirit with Clemens/Twain's Huckleberry Finn. What makes this book special, as a narrative of a man engaged in criminal activities and taking great risks to 'earn' money, is the character and integrity of the author and his life. Given his numerous, even continuous, let downs, abuses and treacheries from 'colleagues' and police enforcement alike he has to the end (at least to date) maintained his soul maintenance department (in old fashionied terms, a true Christian, sounding a lot like Defoe's somewhat regretful but also appreciative Robinson Crusoe). The book is also a well informed and genuine plea for drug law and penal colony reform. Unfortunately with roadside and mobile testing now in NSW Australia for cannabis at levels acquired 9 days previously possibly resulting in fines and loss of license, things are not getting better in the UPS (United Police State).
Aviation enthusiasts will also like this book from this magnificent man and his flying machines, most of which seemed to have crashed in their call of duty. Reaves does not make excuses for his ways and the consequences to him and his family, but he has a sense of proportion and he knows that the biggest criminals are free to kill at will and they wear the most expensive suits. He believes in God, was called "the Prayer" in prison and I don't doubt that he will a fair hearing on his way through those pearly gates without needing to be smuggled in.
For the conspiracy researchers and politically savvy , there information in here that in a better world would see at least one current US Presidential candidate behind bars, for a lot longer than Reaves has served, if not hung out to dry as the real criminals and hypocrites that they are.
4112968
An AT thru hiker's story; the good, the bad, the great, the greater. Detailed, with a wealth of first person perspective and insight. People, places, emotions. It ain't Pulitzer material, but I sure enjoyed the author's adventure more so than most of the other dozen or more AT books I've read.
728841
The life of Theodore Roosevelt reads like an epic story from antiquity from his birth to his death and naturally there have been an amazing number of books seeking to tell this incredible man's story. For some unfathomable reason however there has never been a book that went into much detail about Roosevelt's 1914 expedition to the River of Doubt. Most Roosevelt biographers do mention the trip but I have never run across a book that devotes more than a few pages to this great adventure. Even though I can't understand the lack of scholarship concerning this gripping story I am happy to say that this gap has been filled and has been filled admirably.

Candice Millard has taken hold of this subject and made it her own in what will without a doubt remain the authoritative work on this era of Roosevelt's life. This author is a master story teller who makes this story read like a great adventure novel worthy of Jules Verne or Robert Louis Stevenson. She weaves the story so well that the reader will almost feel as if they are hiking through the jungle with the former president and I sometimes almost thought that I could hear the insects buzzing around my ears.  Her highly vivid description of the jungle and the flora and fauna to be found there was simply fantastic. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words but this author gives new meaning to the phrase as she works with words a magic that hardly any camera could duplicate.

As a further bonus the human side of this story is just as well told as the description of the beautiful scenery. Roosevelt has always been a larger than life figure and that public persona has been captured well by many authors but this author goes much deeper into Roosevelt's soul. For the first time I really felt as if I had met Roosevelt the man as I read this wonderful book. As the story starts TR is his usual self-confident self but as the trip stretches out for months we begin to see a much softer side of this great man. We see a man growing weaker and weaker in front of his comrades and after he receives a leg wound we see him in great pain. We see a man who is facing death and who faces it with courage and concern for the toll that his illness is taking on the rest of the men in the expedition. It is in this period of time when this great man really proves his greatness with his humility and willingness to sacrifice himself for the good of the others. This author clearly shows us a Theodore Roosevelt that most of us have never seen before.

Also much to Millard's credit she does not ignore the other people on this expedition as it surely would have been tempting to do when dealing with a personality as overwhelming as Roosevelt's. TR is of course the center of the story but the rest of the cast are also handled very well from the co-leader of the expedition right down to the low men on the totem pole and even those who only made part of the journey come to life in this skillfully written book. No fan of Theodore Roosevelt will want to miss out on this superb book.
2915407
A great and grand adventure that is written in an elegant, yet very readable style. You will never forget this story and the imagery presented within. It is that good.
3246745
A great story full of adventure, personality, resourcefulness and survival. Its refreshing to to see an author include the faith journey of the survivors as well as their travails. I have already recommended it to a number of people and plan to read more of Druett's work.  I recommend it for the survival story as well as the lesson it animal behavior in particular the seals.

Jack Guiso
1377192
This is an absolutely great story! For a start it is true, and tells the tale of a lost air crew in the New Guinea Highlands and a stone-age tribe. We lived in PNG 25 years ago and have traveled to the highlands, so had an appreciation of the cultural aspects, but the bravery of the survivors and the rescue crew and the ingenious way the final rescue was completed was spell binding. A fabulous read; thoroughly recommended.
3421017
This is a tale wonderfully told of an explorer's quest to fill in the blank spots on the map of Asia.  Not only does Hedin present a clear and highly entertaining view of his travels, but he also gives us a portrait of his character.  He shows us that he is a man with high goals and is undeterred in achieving those goals, even when all odds are against him.  He shows us that he is also a very caring man, very much concerned about the welfare of his men and his animals.  He also is a man that is awestruck by nature and is very concerned about not unduly intruding upon it or unnecessarily destroying it.
But most of all, this is an adventure story that is just plain fun to read.
A suggestion to readers who are not very familiar with the geography of central Asia would be to have on hand some good maps as the ones Hedin draws are quite limited and often fail to give the perspective that may be desireable.
1161484
Never having been a history buff, I nonetheless began reading "Or Perish In The Attempt" upon the recommendation of  friend.  I absolutely loved it! It is a great adventure story which focuses not only on the medicine of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, but on the quirkly, fascinating characters of the Corps of Discovery. Peck  highlights the exciting and dangerous experiences these men (one woman, and a baby) had during the Expedition, keeping us on the edge of our seats much of the time.  This story is a very good read and is an inspiration to anyone who has ever had to do something difficult or dangerous and thought they would never succeed.  In addition, the author, David Peck, has a dry wit which he infuses into the narration by way of some humorous, offbeat stories about his experiences as a contemporary, suburban doctor.  This book is fascinating, motivational, and educational all at the same time.
4363946
Being a fan of what's known as 'historical fiction' I was looking forward to reading this book, and I was not sorry I did. A well paced adventure, it takes the reader on one great adventure. The book was well written, and exposes you to a different time and place, where not everything was known, and finding out someone's true motives were a lot harder than today.

This was a very very good read. I very much recommend it for fans of the genre, and even for those who aren't.