Books with Various Survival Stories
 

These books explore real-life survival scenarios, human endurance, and decision-making under extreme conditions.

• Extreme Survival – Michael Tougias

• Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why – Laurence Gonzales

• The Survivors Club: The Secrets and Science that Could Save Your Life – Ben Sherwood

• Surviving the Extremes (2004) – Kenneth Kamler

• Wild Rescues: A Paramedic's Extreme Adventures – Kevin Grange

• The Cold Vanish: Seeking the Missing in North America's Wilderness – Jon Billman
   

Survival Stories Featured in The Crux Podcast
 

Books that share survival stories discussed or aligned with episodes of The Crux Podcast.
 

Wilderness & Climbing Survival
 

• Between a Rock and a Hard Place (2004) – Aron Ralston
  2003 Utah canyon accident; trapped for 127 hours, self-amputation to survive

• Touching the Void (1988) – Joe Simpson
  1985 climbing accident in the Peruvian Andes

• Dead Lucky: Life After Death on Mount Everest (2007) – Lincoln Hall
  Survived being left for dead at 28,000 feet

• Left for Dead: My Journey Home from Everest (2000) – Beck Weathers
   

Survival at Sea
 

• 438 Days (2015) – Jonathan Franklin
  Jose Salvador Alvarenga’s 438 days adrift in the Pacific Ocean

• Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea (1986) – Steve Callahan

• Albatross (1994) – Deborah Scaling Kiley & Meg Noonan

• 117 Days Adrift (1974) – Maurice & Maralyn Bailey

• Staying Alive! (1992) – Maurice & Maralyn Bailey

• Saved (1997) – Tony Bullimore

• Unsinkable (2011) – Abby Sunderland
   

Plane Crashes & Aviation Survival
 

• When I Fell From the Sky (2011) – Juliane Koepcke
  Sole survivor of a 1971 plane crash into the Amazon rainforest

• Crazy for the Storm (2009) – Norman Ollestad

• Flight 232 (2014) – Laurence Gonzales

• Chosen to Live (1996) – Jerry Schemmel

• Above All Else (2011) – Dan Brodsky-Chenfield
   

War, History & Expeditions
 

• Endurance (1959) – Alfred Lansing
  Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic survival expedition

• We Die Alone (1955) – David Howarth

• Defiant Courage (2000) – Astrid Karlsen Scott

• Seven Came Through (1943) – Eddie Rickenbacker

• In Harm’s Way (2001) – Doug Stanton

• Indianapolis (2018) – Lynn Vincent & Sara Vladic
   

Jungle & Extreme Environment Survival
 

• Jungle (1993/2005) – Yossi Ghinsberg

• The River of Doubt (2005) – Candice Millard

• Angels in the Wilderness (2005) – Amy Racina
   

Cave Rescues & Confined Spaces
 

• The Boys in the Cave (2018) – Matt Gutman

• Miracle in the Cave (2018) – ABC News

• Thirteen Lessons (2021) – John Volanthen
   

Historical Disasters & True Accounts
 

• The Johnstown Flood (1968) – David McCullough

• Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 (2003) – Stephen Puleo

• Sufferings in Africa (1817) – James Riley

• Skeletons on the Zahara (2004) – Dean King

• In the Heart of the Sea (2000) – Nathaniel Philbrick
   

Memoirs, Exploration & Personal Survival Journeys
 

• Alone (1938) – Richard E. Byrd

• The Ice Master (2000) – Jennifer Niven

• The Bombard Story (1953) – Alain Bombard

• The Last Season (2006) – Eric Blehm

• The Push (2017) – Tommy Caldwell

• Over the Edge (2002) – Greg Child

• Living Life Full Throttle (2025) – Sheryl Ramstad

• Grandma Gatewood’s Walk (2014) – Ben Montgomery
   

Survival, Escape & Modern True Stories
 

• The Revenant (2002) – Michael Punke

• Lord Grizzly (1954) – Frederick Manfred

• The Barefoot Bandit (2012) – Bob Friel

• A Captain’s Duty (2010) – Richard Phillips

• The Long Walk (1956) – Slavomir Rawicz (authenticity debated)

• Tunnel 29 (2021) – Helena Merriman

• Into the Raging Sea (2018) – Rachel Slade