I really enjoyed this collection of well-researched and genially presented true tales of awfulness. Despite its casual style of delivery it is well cited and has a bibliography that I want to to work my way through. Also, I am never going in a boat, plane, or north of Manchester ever again. ( )

More a compendium rather than a real unified non-fiction book, but what a compendium! Gem-like anecdotes abound. ( )

This book was pretty much written for me. It is 500 pages of survival and frostbite and bear attacks and people eating each other. Leslie's writing style is occasionally over-the-top and seems to come from the 1930s instead of the 1990s, but anyone who uses W.S. Gilbert's poetry to make a point gets kudos from me. He inexplicably leaves out the Donner Party and the Franklin expedition; perhaps he thought they've been overdone, but how can you have an entire section on survival cannibalism and never even mention the Donners or Franklin?

This book has the distinction of being only the second in my Librarything collection that I have tagged with both "animals that will eat you" and "cannibalism nom nom". However, I also had to add to Desperate Journeys my least favorite tag - "dog fatality" - because people in these stories eat their dogs left and right. In one dreadful recounting, a couple trying to hike out of the Alaska wilderness had to leave their dog behind when they were forced to climb a 150-foot frozen waterfall. The next day, the dog rejoined them; she somehow made her way up 150 feet of sheer ice, because there is no greater force than canine love. So naturally about a week later they killed and ate her.

ARE YOU SERIOUS, I said. I am sorry to report that both people survived, but they will each be assigned, in the afterlife, the role of Cerberus' Chew Toy. (This is also what will happen to Michael Vick.)

All in all, what a great book to read curled on the couch with spicy hot chocolate while "wintry mix", that charming New England euphemism for "everything unpleasant falling from the sky at once", goes on outside. If you are me, and like that sort of thing. Because I have issues.

I really disliked Edward Leslie's book "Desparate Journeys, Abandoned Souls: True stories of castaways and other survivors." I liked some of the castaway stories... and I would have enjoyed the book if stuck to telling the those stories in a more straightforward manner. But Leslie launches into other random stuff -- poetry and philosophical discussions about cannibalism-- that dragged away the enjoyment the book had for me. I also found the individual stories difficult to follow... he starts to tell you about one survivor, then jumps into information about someone else, then goes back to the original person. It makes it very hard to follow the stories or keep the people straight. Sadly, this book takes an interesting topic and makes it tedious. ( )

2206 Desperate Journeys, Abandoned Souls: True Stories of Castaways and Other Survivors, by Edward E. Leslie (read 16 Apr 1989) This book about maroons and castaways has 20 chapters about marooned people, people reduced to cannibalism, and astounding survivals. The 21st chapter has a large number of stories from 1942 to the present. Each account was fantastic once one got caught up in it--but it is like reading short stories: one is always starting over. One of the stories is of Lord Byron's grandfather. The stories run together and it is hard to keep them straight. ( )