The Survivors Club Ben Sherwood | ISBN : 0-446-58024-4

The Survivors Club

Author: Ben Sherwood

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Publication Date: 26 January, 2009

ISBN: 9780446580243

Pages: 400

Subjects: Medical, Health and fitness, Reference, Psychology, Self help

Available as: Trade Cloth, 978-0-446-58024-3 Trade Cloth, 978-0-446-54123-7 Trade Paper, 978-0-446-69885-6 E-Book - Open Ebook; EPUB, 978-0-446-54391-0

Description:

Which is the safest seat on an airplane? Where is the best place to have a heart attack? Why does religious observance add years to your life? How can birthdays be hazardous to your health?THE SURVIVORS CLUBEach second of the day, someone inAmericafaces a crisis, whether it's a car accident, violent crime, serious illness, or financial trouble. Given the inevitability of adversity, we all wonder: Who beats the odds and who surrenders? Why do some people bound back and others give up? How can I become the kind of person who survives and thrives?The fascinating, hopeful answers to these questions are found in THE SURVIVORS CLUB. In the tradition ofFreakonomicsandThe Tipping Point, this bookreveals the hidden side of survival by combining astonishing true stories, gripping scientific research, and the author's adventures inside the U.S. military's elite survival schools and the government's airplane crash evacuation course.With THE SURVIVORS CLUB, you can alsodiscover your own Survivor IQ through a powerful Internet-based test called the Survivor Profiler. Developed exclusively for this book, the test analyzes your personality and generates a customized report on your top survivor strengths.There is no escaping life's inevitable struggles. But THE SURVIVORS CLUB can give you an edge when adversity strikes.

PW Publishers Weekly

Review Source: Publishers Weekly

Review Date: 2008-10-27

Sherwood (The Man Who Ate the 747), a writer for the L.A. Times, travels worldwide to gain insight from people who have survived a slew of near fatal phenomena ranging from a mountain lion attack to a Holocaust concentration camp, and interviewing an array of experts to understand the psychology, genetics and jumble of other little things that determines whether we live or die. Readers curious about their own "survivor profile" can take an Internet test, which is explained in the book's later pages. Sherwood's assertion that survival is "a way of perceiving the world around you" is enlightening, as are some of the facts he uncovers: you have 90 seconds to leave a plane crash before the cabin temperature becomes unbearable; luck has more to do with personal perspective than chance. But Sherwood's balance of self-help, scientific theories and first-rate reporting is diminished by occasionally overwrought prose as well as the countless survivors' stories, which can run together in a touchy-feely stream of faith and optimism. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved