Tagged: Books

Mitchell Zuckoff was conducting research for a book project when he stumbled upon a compelling headline from a Chicago newspaper. The dateline was 1945. Zuckoff was so astonished by this newspaper story that he read
that day that he dropped everything and began working on what became another book instead; "Lost in Shangri-La: a True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II."

This is the story of a tragic plane crash in 1945 near the end of WWII. A group of military personnel, men and women, were on a sight-seeing flight over a remote valley in New Guinea. Then something went wrong. The plane crashed into the mountainside. There were only three survivors. Two of them were badly hurt.

Tom Gallant was inspired to write his novel "The Lord God Bird" after he heard about the reported sighting of an Ivory Billed Woodpecker several years ago in an Arkansas forest. Since this majestic species of woodpecker has been presumed to be extinct this news thrilled many bird lovers.  Unfortunately, it probably wasn't an Ivory Bill and the birds are likely to be gone forever now.

In ""The Lord God Bird" Gallant has written a plain spoken homage to the wonder of our natural world. The main characters here are "the man" who is not named, and a woodpecker. This man lives gently upon the land. The woodpecker and his mate have flown from Florida into the Arkansas woods where they encounter this man. The woodpecker decides that the man is worthy of contact.