[Hoosier-Daddy]

I’ve heard ‘House-to-House’ is excellent, but haven’t read it.

[Grizzled Bear]

Why does a God Fearing Texan have the Oklahoma State Flag on their FReep Page?

Try Natan Sharansky’s works. “Fear no Evil” and “A Case for Democracy.”

Also “Shake Hands With the Devil” by Romeo Dellaire.

If you’re willing to try some fiction I highly recommend David Gemmel.

[Tennessee Nana]

Patrick O’Brian who wrote all the Aubrey/Maturin Series

“Master and Commander” with Russell crowe was made from 2 or 3 together...

I love sailing ships, and pirates and history and I loved these books

I’ve read about 1/2 of them...

His research was great and these are some of the best books about that era...

http://www.wwnorton.com/pob/pobtitles.htm

[cripplecreek]

And old one but it has what you’re looking for.

Yeager: An Autobiography

[Jet Jaguar]

I would like to recommend “America’s Victories” ‘Why the U.S. Wins Wars and Will Win The War on Terror’

By Larry Schweikart

I am about half though it. It is a great book.

JJ

[ElkGroveDan]

I highly recommend:

Voyager
by Jeana Yeager, Dick Rutan, Phil Patton

It’s the story of Burt Rutan’s Voyager craft. His brother Dick Rutan and Jeanna Yeager flew it around the world without refueling - the first time for any aircraft.

It’s a real modern adventure story.

[Huntress]

“Shadow Divers” by Robert Kurson. The book is about several deep sea divers who explore the wreck of a German U-Boat off the NJ coast.

[Old Sarge]

Ah, I see “non-fiction” only. A shame.

I would recommend “The Lords of the Rings”.

But if you wish for non-fiction? “War As I Knew It’, by George S. Patton.

[Tennessee Nana]

and the Amazon link

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=stripbooks&field-keywords=patrick%20o’%20brian&results-process=default&dispatch=search/ref=pd_sl_aw_tops-1_stripbooks_4407656_1&results-process=default

[Cogadh na Sith]

Hands down, the best books I have ever read--adventure, courage:

Sir Samuel Baker: The Swordhunters of the Hamran Arabs
Ismailia
The Rifle and Hound in Ceylon
The Albert Nyanza

COL John Ward: With the Diehards in Siberia

George Kennan: Tent Life in Siberia

The best part is: They are all available for download from Project Guttenberg online!

[expatpat]

Jan Hartog wrote an interesting book about his life as a kid on the boats on the Zuider Zee in Holland before it was drained. I don’t remember the name. He also wrote one or two very good books about his experiences on minesweeper etc. during WWII.

[Grizzled Bear]

Reading Suggestion Request PING.

[cripplecreek]

Five years to freedom by James Rowe

It’s about his 5 years as a POW in Vietnam

[LexBaird]

Try looking at biographies of Sir Richard Burton (the African explorer, not the actor). here is the wiki page on him.

He wrote on many subjects, including his travels and explorations, and his long rivalry with Speke is legendary. Check the wiki page for links to some of his works, including the original English translation of "1001 Arabian Nights".

[nycgal]

If you haven’t yet read “Into Thin Air”. I highly recommend this thrilling true life account of climbing Mt. Everest.

[pillut48]

Clive Cussler has several books concerning real-life situations where he's help explore shipwrecks and even a train wreck! I like his stuff about the Hunley, a Civil War 'submarine'. Here's a link to at amazon.com.

[Othniel]

"Hiding the Elephant" is great. It's about the development of magic during the 1800's, and how there were different guys thinking up tricks. By the same author (whose name eludes me right now) is a book about Chung Ling Soo, an American/Brit who passed himself off as a Chinese magician so well that when he died (bullet catching trick), nobody believe that he wasn't from China.

"The Physics of Football" is also good. So is anything by RC Sproul.

[BIGLOOK]

There' an older book of short essays of courageous efforts of the military. It's To The Last Cartridge by Robert Barr Smith, Avon, 1994, ISBN 0-380-77212-4.

It presents a picture that's not always successful but realistic of the nature of war.

[anonsquared]

If you’re someplace hot and want to cool down:

The Conquest of Everest - Sir John Hunt
Endurance - Alfred Lansing
Annapurna - Maurice Herzog
The Ultimate Challenge - Chris Bonington
The Climb - Anatoli Boukreev and G. Weston DeWalt
Ghosts of Everest - Hemmleb, Johnson and Simonson
A Slender Thread - Stephen Venables
Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer
Because It’s There - Dudley Green
K2 - Jim Curran
Nanda Devi - John Roskelley
The White Death - Mckay Jenkins

If you’re someplace cold and want to warm up, you can always slog through Seven Pillars of Wisdom - T.E. Lawrence.

Two other adventure books:
Classic Survival Stories - Edited by Lamar Underwood
Deep Survival (Who Lives, Wod Dies, and Why) - Laurence Gonzales

[SatinDoll]

I can recommend three books immediately, though two are definitely out of print with the third, a classic, possibly still available.

The Frigates, by James Henderson CBE; an account of the lesser warships of the wars from 1793 to 1815. The last chapter is a great, rousing true-life adventure at sea. You can sometimes find it on Ebay.

Mrs. Marco Polo Remembers, by Mary Parker Dunning, Houghton Mifflin Co. (publishers), 1968; her husband was a professor and for their honeymoon in 1908 they traveled around the world, visiting the Far East, Central Asia, India, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. He died in the 1950s after an African safari and trips to Angkor Wat, Bali and Nepal. Mary was one of the few western women ever to spend a day in a harem and be allowed to leave!

I’m going to include the next book just because so few people have ever read it and it describes a part of the world, eastern Turkey, where few have ever traveled.

The Persian Expedition, by Xenophon, translated by Rex Warner,Penquin Books Ltd., 1949 - 1965; an account of the march of the Ten Thousand Greeks, from Babylon to the Black Sea at the beginning of the 4th century b.c.

I hope you find this short list a good start. Good luck on finding them all.