Biographies of people who faced their own mortality

Cafe Society
#1

I read Lance Armstrong’s biography a few years ago. I also read John Walsh and John Edward’s biographies (who lost children) and found all of them to be interesting.

Are there other biographies of people facing their own mortality (disease, accidents, etc) or the mortality of a child where it causing them to undergo dramatic and lifelong personality changes and that talks about the person they were before, during and after the event or loss?

People who are suicide survivors, or who have survived severe diseases, or who were in accidents, etc.

#2

Randy Pausch’s “Last Lecture” is a classic, although I don’t know how much of a biography it is - more advice about living.

#3

How bout the dude that had to amputate his own arm to survive??

Here’s a description of his book.

If you don’t want to wait, Here’s the synopsis of what happened.

#4

The end result is a one-armed man who will never, ever have to buy his own beer in any bar in the world. “So, how did you lose the arm?”

#5

I was going to describe it as sort of a Farewell to Arm, but then I thought, no…

#6

What about that movie **Into the Void **about the two guys who got caught on a mountain, one guy fell into a crevasse and the other guy had to cut him loose and let him fall to save himself - and both survived…

Or the movie **Alive **for that matter…about the soccer team stranded by a plane crash in the Andes who had to take matters regarding food to an unfortunate extreme.

I think both started off as books…

Oh, and a book just got published - can’t remember the name - written by a guy who was 11 years old and was in a plane crash with his dad and stepmom(?) - she survived the initial crash, but the then-boy and her had to survive on the mountain after that…sounded incredibly interesting and harrowing…

#7

Came here to say this. It’s an incredible story. Plus, the man who fell completely forgave the man who cut him off, noting that it was a difficult decision to make and he would have probably done the same.

#8

Beck Weather’s “Left For Dead”. He was one of the survivors of the Everest Disaster in 1996. Hearing a man describe how he watched his toe skitter across his hallway floor is something I have a hard time putting out of my mind.

In fact most of the books written by the survivors of that day are well written and engrossing.

#9

Survive the Savage Sea, or pretty much any other “adrift in a small raft” survival story.