Good book suggestion for winter read list

P Carter

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"Endurance" - the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton's expedition to Antarctica in 1914. Great story of survival beyond all odds. Makes me feel like a wimp every time I read it!
Agree. Other good ones in this general genre

Blood and thunder (kit Carson)

The wager (I was skeptical after seeing it so popular, but it’s pretty darn good)

In the heart of the sea (warrants some eye rolls but is also pretty darn good)

Madhouse at the end of the earth (Antarctic expedition ship stuck in the ice over winter, very good)

And, of course, undaunted courage, about the corps of discovery (Lewis and Clark)
 

dkell

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A Hunter's Wandering in Africa - Frederick Selous
African Game Trails - Teddy Roosevelt
Man-Eaters of Tsavo - J. H. Patterson (watch Ghost & The Darkness after)
Months of the Sun - Ian Nyschens
Death in the Long Grass - Peter H Capstick
Green Hills of Africa - Hemingway
Good Hunting - Roosevelt
Horn of the Hunter - Robert Ruark
Nick Adams short stories - Hemingway (Big Two-Hearted River & The Last Best Place are standouts)
The Longest Silence - Tom McGuane
An Outside Chance - Tom McGuane
All The Pretty Horses - Cormac McCarthy
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy
No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy
Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry (vastly different than 80s tv miniseries)
The Model 12 Winchester as a Way of Life - John Hewitt
Trout Magic - Robert Traver
The Virtues of War - Steven Pressfield
Mouthful of Feathers - Various Authors (upland)

I could go on and on.. I have enjoyed all of those reads and find myself rereading this selection often.
 
OP
30338

30338

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Wow, ton of good suggestions so far. Looking forward to reading some of these.
 
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About half done with blood meridian and dam it’s tough for me to read.
Not sure if it’s the slang or what but just not sure I’m digging how it’s written.
I was looking forward to it.
 

Beendare

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The ones I liked recently:

The Old Man- a retired bad ass hands it to some guys after him.

Anything written by Michael Connelly, Mark Greany or Jack Carr

“The Life We Bury” was pretty good- a student biography project of a Vietnam vet jailed for murder

Once an Eagle by Anton Meyer, saga follows a philosophical military man into WW1 and into the Vietnam war
 

Oldrifle

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Lost in the Jungle by Yossi ghinsberg
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
Big Burn by Timothy Egan
 

Seeknelk

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Empire of Ice and Stone( Buddy Levy)...about the journey of the Karluk.
Island of the Lost, two shipwrecks happen on the same island south of NZ. Neither knew the other was there. Really highlights how much leadership matters.
Batavia: 1629 wreck near Australia during the dutch rule of the west indies. Horrible tale of mutiny and murder, but also so good things.

Skeletons on the Zahara: shipwreck again. Saharan coast, slavery and lot of other hardships follow. The Arab/desert life is fascinating, and hard.
In the Kingdom of Ice( Hampton Sides): another arctic exploration gone wrong. Amazing story!
Yeah I'm stuck in a shit hole called Seattle so these books make me feel thankful and lucky I think. 🤣
 
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This is a great thread so far, I’m excited to follow along and read some of these suggestions. As for my own suggestions, I could go a few directions.

Hunting related
- The Tiger by John Vaillant is a great story of a modern man eating tiger in Siberia.
- Man-eaters of Kumaon by Jim Corbett is a classic
- Wilderness Hunting and Wildcraft by Col Townsend Whelen has been pretty interesting and informative so far, I’m only part way through though.
- Jaguar Hunting in the Mato Grasso by Tony de Almeida is a very interesting read on a pretty unknown topic. I used some of it for my thesis paper actually.
- Dersu the Trapper by V. K. Arseniev is essentially the Russian Lewis and Clark story from a hunter’s perspective.
- Bringing back the Lions by Mike Arnold is a conservation success story of reintroducing lions and “re-wilding” Coutada 11 in Mozambique.

Non-hunting related
I could put a ridiculously long list here but I’ll try to just put a few across a wider variety of genres.
- Lord of the Rings by Tolkien needs no introduction.
- The Art of Asking by Terry Fadem is a crash course on how to get better at asking useful questions to get better answers.
- Red Team by Micah Zenko digs into how to think from the “enemy” perspective and fix problems before they occur.
- Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer is an account of WWII from a teenage German infantryman that will change how you look at the war a little.
- The Accidental Superpower by Peter Zeihan is an interesting read on the state of the world.
- The Wager by David Grant. I’ll end with a shipwreck story since those seem to be a theme. This one is a true story but written like a murder mystery.
 
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@30338 in a couple weeks I'm hosting a guy's night out in Kansas City...the inspiration for the theme is Jim Bridger. We're going to see 504 Westport Rd which is one of the oldest buildings in KC which Bridger used to own...then check out his statue at Pioneer Park, and then eat at the oldest steakhouse in KC. Hoping to have lots of good Bridger facts at the ready so will check out your book.
 

mtwarden

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Anything by Cormac McCarthy. I’ve read most of his novels twice :)

One you don’t see mentioned much is Edward Abbey’s The Brave Cowboy, but a great read. Even made a movie of it in the early 60’s with Kirk Douglas (the movie was titled Lonely are the Brave- good movie too)
 
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dkell

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About half done with blood meridian and dam it’s tough for me to read.
Not sure if it’s the slang or what but just not sure I’m digging how it’s written.
I was looking forward to it.

Cormac has a very particular style of using little to no punctuation which makes a lot of his sentences at times seem like an unfinished thought.

First time I read him it took me a bit to get used to it but once that coding switched on it was like reading normally.

It is hard to get a flow going though right away, certainly agree.
 
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Authors. John Maxwell, Max Lucado — outdoors. Zane Grey, Ted Trueblood, Gene Hill ( he has several short writings books that are great)
Books.
Ed Zern. How to Hunt Chukars
Citizen Warrior Joshua Chamberlain
100 Years of Field and Stream
Billy Graham - beatitudes
Cliff Graham Lion of War series and other smaller books
Mark Batterson. The Circle Maker
Gary Chapman. 5 Love Languages and accompanying books
Andy Andrews. The Travelers Gift, he has others that are good
Think and Grow Rich
How to Win Friends and Influence People
Oldie - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintence.
 
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