Dear Jim,
The book “The Long Walk” by Slavomir Rawicz [1] is the best book on the human spirit over the elements (both natural and man made) that I’ve ever read.
The author and his group escaped from a Siberian Gulag in 1942, crossed the Gobi Desert and the Himalayas, and walked all the way to India. Over 4,000-miles! This was all without the aid of $10,000 worth of gear from the REI catalog, or for that matter, shoes.
It’s a perfect combination of some of our standard topics! Government tyranny, survival, hope, ingenuity, teamwork. It was absolutely inspiring! – Frank S.