Krakauer, Jon

Into thin air : a personal account of the Mount Everest disaster by Jon Krakauer ( Book )
85 editions published between 1997 and 2011 in 4 languages and held by 4,392 libraries worldwide
A history of Mount Everest expedition is intertwined with the disastrous expedition the author was a part of, during which five members were killed by a hurricane-strength blizzard. When Jon Krakauer reached the summit of Mt. Everest in the early afternoon of May 10, 1996, he hadn't slept in fifty-seven hours and was reeling from the brain-altering effects of oxygen depletion. As he turned to begin his long, dangerous descent from 29,028 feet, twenty other climbers were still pushing doggedly toward the top. No one had noticed that the sky had begun to fill with clouds. Six hours later and 3,000 feet lower, in 70-knot winds and blinding snow, Krakauer collapsed in his tent, freezing, hallucinating from exhaustion and hypoxia, but safe. The following morning he learned that six of his fellow climbers hadn't made it back to their camp and were in a desperate struggle for their lives. When the storm finally passed, five of them would be dead, and the sixth so horribly frostbitten that his right hand would have to be amputated. Krakauer examines what it is about Everest that has compelled so many people - including himself - to throw caution to the wind, ignore the concerns of loved ones, and willingly subject themselves to such risk, hardship, and expense. Written with emotional clarity and supported by his unimpeachable reporting, Krakauer's eye-witness account of what happened on the roof of the world is a singular achievement.

Into the wild by Jon Krakauer ( Book )
100 editions published between 1996 and 2011 in 17 languages and held by 4,237 libraries worldwide
A true story expanded from Krakauer's article about a young man who starved to death in Denali National Park in Alaska. In a compelling book that evokes the writings of Thoreau, Muir, and Jack London, Krakauer recounts the haunting and tragic mystery of 22-year-old Chris McCandless who disappeared in April 1992 into the Alaskan wilderness in search of a raw, transcendent experience. His emaciated corpse was discovered four months later.

Under the banner of heaven : a story of violent faith by Jon Krakauer ( Book )
45 editions published between 1999 and 2007 in 4 languages and held by 3,781 libraries worldwide
Jon Krakauer's literary reputation rests on insightful chronicles of lives conducted at the outer limits. In UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN, he shifts his focus from extremes of physical adventure to extremes of religious belief within our own borders. At the core of his book is an appalling double murder committed by two Mormon Fundamentalist brothers, Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a revelation from God commanding them to kill their blameless victims. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this ₃divinely inspired₄ crime, Krakauer constructs a multilayered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, savage violence, polygamy, and unyielding faith. Along the way, he uncovers a shadowy offshoot of America's fastest-growing religion, and raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief. Krakauer takes readers inside isolated communities in the American West, Canada, and Mexico, where some forty-thousand Mormon Fundamentalists believe the mainstream Mormon Church went unforgivably astray when it renounced polygamy. Defying both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City, the leaders of these outlaw sects are zealots who answer only to God. Marrying prodigiously and with virtual impunity (the leader of the largest fundamentalist church took seventy-five "plural wives," several of whom were wed to him when they were fourteen or fifteen and he was in his eighties), fundamentalist prophets exercise absolute control over the lives of their followers, and preach that any day now the world will be swept clean in a hurricane of fire, sparing only their most obedient adherents. Weaving the story of the Lafferty brothers and their fanatical brethren with a clear-eyed look at Mormonism's violent past, Krakauer examines the underbelly of the most successful homegrown faith in the United States, and finds a distinctly American brand of religious extremism. The result is vintage Krakauer, an utterly compelling work of nonfiction that illuminates an otherwise confounding realm of human behavior.

Where men win glory : the odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer ( Book )
18 editions published between 2008 and 2010 in English and held by 2,671 libraries worldwide
Irrepressible individualist and iconoclast Pat Tillman walked away from his $3.6 million NFL contract in May 2002 to enlist in the United States Army. Deeply troubled by 9/11, he felt a strong moral obligation to join the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Two years later, he died on a desolate hillside in Afghanistan. Though obvious to most on the scene that a ranger in Tillman's own platoon had fired the fatal shots, the Army aggressively maneuvered to keep this information from Tillman's family and the American public for five weeks following his death, while President Bush repeatedly invoked Tillman's name to promote his administration's foreign policy. Biographer Krakauer draws on his journals and letters, interviews with his wife and friends, conversations with the soldiers who served alongside him, and extensive research in Afghanistan to render this driven, complex, and uncommonly compelling figure as well as the definitive account of the events and actions that led to his death.--From publisher description.

Into thin air by Jon Krakauer ( Recording )
96 editions published between 1997 and 2007 in 18 languages and held by 1,289 libraries worldwide
Jon Krakauer's epic account of the May 1996 disaster on Mt. Everest, which claimed five lives.

Eiger dreams : ventures among men and mountains by Jon Krakauer ( Book )
17 editions published between 1990 and 2009 in English and Portuguese and held by 1,028 libraries worldwide
John Krakauer introduces us to the wider fraternity of mountaineers--the daredevels, athletes and misfits who play a game whose stakes grow more dangerous with each climb.

Iceland : land of the sagas by David Roberts ( Book )
4 editions published between 1990 and 1998 in English and held by 578 libraries worldwide
Photographs exploring the grandeur of Iceland's remarkable geography accompany tales of real-life heroes and supernatural beings.

Where men win glory [the odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer ( Recording )
8 editions published between 2009 and 2010 in English and Italian and held by 366 libraries worldwide
Irrepressible individualist and iconoclast Pat Tillman walked away from his $3.6 million NFL contract in May 2002 to enlist in the United States Army. Deeply troubled by 9/11, he felt a strong moral obligation to join the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Two years later, he died on a desolate hillside in Afghanistan. Though obvious to most on the scene that a ranger in Tillman's own platoon had fired the fatal shots, the Army aggressively maneuvered to keep this information from Tillman's family and the American public for five weeks following his death, while President Bush repeatedly invoked Tillman's name to promote his administration's foreign policy. Biographer Krakauer draws on his journals and letters, interviews with his wife and friends, conversations with the soldiers who served alongside him, and extensive research in Afghanistan to render this driven, complex, and uncommonly compelling figure as well as the definitive account of the events and actions that led to his death.--From publisher description.

Three cups of deceit : how Greg Mortenson, humanitarian hero, lost his way by Jon Krakauer ( Book )
1 edition published in 2011 in English and held by 322 libraries worldwide
Argues that author and humanitarian Greg Mortenson, noted for his campaign to open schools for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan, has not been truthful about his past, his reasons for opening schools, or his abduction by the Taliban.

Prophet's prey : my seven-year investigation into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints by Sam Brower ( Book )
3 editions published in 2011 in English and held by 321 libraries worldwide
Private investigator Sam Brower recounts his investigation of Warren Jeffs, leader of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also known as FLDS.