To the Last Breath
A Memoir of Going to Extremes
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Narrated by:
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Francis Slakey
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By:
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Francis Slakey
About this listen
Before Georgetown physics professor Francis Slakey decided to climb the highest mountain on every continent and surf every ocean, he had shut himself off from other people. His lectures were mechanical; his relationships were little more than ways to fill the evenings. But as his journey veered dangerously off course, everything about him began to change.
A gripping adventure of the body and mind, To the Last Breath depicts the quest that leads Slakey around the globe, almost takes his life, challenges his fiercely held beliefs, and opens his heart. The scientist in Slakey explores the history of Robert Falcon Scott’s doomed Antarctica expedition, the technology of climbing, and the geophysics of waves. But it is the challenges he endures and the people he encounters - a Lama who gives him a mysterious amulet, a life-or-death choice atop Everest, an ambush at gunpoint in Indonesia, a head-on collision in the high desert - that culminate in a moving lesson about what it means to be human.
©2012 Francis Slakey (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Beyond Possible
- One Man, Fourteen Peaks, and the Mountaineering Achievement of a Lifetime
- By: Nims Purja
- Narrated by: Shridhar Solanki
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Nepali climber Nims Purja is the first man ever to summit all 14 of the world's 8,000-meter "Death Zone" peaks. He did so in less than seven months, breaking the previous record of seven years.
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5 stars for the achievement 3 stars for the book.
- By fostesa on 01-11-22
By: Nims Purja
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81 Days Below Zero
- The Incredible Survival Story of a World War II Pilot in Alaska's Frozen Wilderness
- By: Brian Murphy, Toula Vlahou
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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The untold story of Leon Crane, the only surviving crew member of a World War II B-24 crash on a remote mountain near the Arctic Circle, who managed to stay alive 81 days in sub-zero temperature by making peace with nature, and end his ordeal by walking along a river to safety. Part World War II story, part Alaskan adventure story, part survival story, and even part inspirational story, this is what we call " a good listen".
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Diluted and Distracted
- By C. Howe on 09-27-15
By: Brian Murphy, and others
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Deep Survival
- True Stories of Miraculous Endurance and Sudden Death
- By: Laurence Gonzales
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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After her plane crashes, a 17-year-old girl spends 11 days walking through the Peruvian jungle. Against all odds, with no food, shelter, or equipment, she gets out. A better equipped group of adult survivors of the same crash sits down and dies. What makes the difference?
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Fascinating 1st Half, Cynical 2nd Half.
- By Alex Curtis on 07-05-14
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The Road to Sparta
- Reliving the Ancient Battle and Epic Run That Inspired the World's Greatest Footrace
- By: Dean Karnazes
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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In 490 BCE Pheidippides ran for 36 hours straight from Athens to Sparta to seek help in defending Athens from a Persian invasion in the Battle of Marathon. In doing so he saved the development of Western civilization and inspired the birth of the marathon as we know it. Even now, some 2,500 years later, that run stands enduringly as one of greatest physical accomplishments in the history of mankind.
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Repetitive, no depth
- By Miles on 06-12-17
By: Dean Karnazes
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Blind Descent
- The Quest to Discover the Deepest Place on Earth
- By: James Tabor
- Narrated by: Don Leslie
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Blind Descent explores both the brightest and darkest aspects of the timeless human urge to discover - to be first. It is also a thrilling epic about a pursuit that makes even extreme mountaineering and ocean exploration pale by comparison.
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Amazing Courage!!
- By RGH on 11-07-10
By: James Tabor
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Cold Zero
- Inside the FBI Hostage Rescue Team
- By: Christopher Whitcomb
- Narrated by: Christopher Whitcomb
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
- Abridged
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With the immediacy and force of a sniper's strike, Cold Zero is a blistering first-person account of life inside the FBI and its elite Hostage Rescue Team.
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Fact check
- By Rob on 12-18-06
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The Unforgiving Minute
- A Soldier's Education
- By: Craig Mullaney
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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A fascinating account of an Army captain's unusual path through some of the most legendary seats of learning straight into a brutal fight with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, The Unforgiving Minute is, above all, an unforgettable portrait of a young soldier grappling with the weight of his hard-earned knowledge while coming to grips with becoming a man.
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The Unforgiving Son
- By John on 08-21-09
By: Craig Mullaney
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Ranger Confidential
- Living, Working, and Dying in the National Parks
- By: Andrea Lankford
- Narrated by: Julia Motyka
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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The real stories behind the scenery of America’s national parks. For 12 years, Andrea Lankford lived in the biggest, most impressive national parks in the world, working a job she loved. She chaperoned baby sea turtles on their journey to sea. She pursued bad guys on her galloping patrol horse. She jumped into rescue helicopters bound for the heart of the Grand Canyon. She won arguments with bears. She slept with a few too many rattlesnakes. Hell yeah, it was the best job in the world! Fortunately, Andrea survived it.
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Depressing from Cover to Cover
- By Drew (@drewsant) on 04-13-15
By: Andrea Lankford
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The White Darkness
- By: David Grann
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 2 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Henry Worsley spent his life idolizing Ernest Shackleton, the 19th-century polar explorer who tried to become the first person to reach the South Pole and later sought to cross Antarctica on foot. Worsley felt an overpowering connection to those expeditions. In 2008, Worsley set out across Antarctica with two other descendants of Shackleton's crew, battling the freezing, desolate landscape and life-threatening physical exhaustion. He soon felt compelled to go back. In 2015, Worsley bid farewell to his family and embarked on his most perilous quest: to walk across Antarctica alone.
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Will Patton's narration
- By Carol on 01-18-19
By: David Grann
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Pym
- By: Mat Johnson
- Narrated by: J.D. Jackson
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Acclaimed novelist Mat Johnson is the winner of the prestigious Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. After being sacked, American literature professor Chris Jaynes discovers a slave manuscript that seemingly confirms the existence of an “island of pure and utter blackness” as described in Poe’s Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. Soon Jaynes and a rag-tag crew embark on an epic adventure to discover the truth.
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I would recommend this book to a friend.
- By Penda K on 07-20-15
By: Mat Johnson
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Love, Africa
- A Memoir of Romance, War, and Survival
- By: Jeffrey Gettleman
- Narrated by: Charlie Thurston
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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A seasoned war correspondent, Jeffrey Gettleman has covered every major conflict over the past 20 years, from Afghanistan to Iraq to the Congo. For the past decade, he has served as the East Africa bureau chief for the New York Times, fulfilling his teenage dream of living in Africa. Love, Africa is the story of how he got there - and of his difficult, winding path toward becoming a good reporter and a better man.
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Loved this book!!!
- By Benjamin on 05-26-17
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Turn Right at Machu Picchu
- Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time
- By: Mark Adams
- Narrated by: Andrew Garman
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Writer for the New York Times and GQ, Mark Adams is also the acclaimed author of Mr. America. In this fascinating travelogue, Adams follows in the controversial footsteps of Hiram Bingham III, who’s been both lionized and vilified for his discovery of the famed Lost City in 1911—but which reputation is justified?
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Spellbounding, exceptional vocals
- By KLewis on 09-19-15
By: Mark Adams
What listeners say about To the Last Breath
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Mel
- 05-10-12
The Sound of the Last Breath--"Om"
Imagine: you are cocooned in your sleeping bag atop a cot pinned to the sheer granite monolith that is El Capitan--2,000 feet from the floor of Yosemite. You wake up and notice your feet are dangling over the cot, and see that the 9mm strap attached to the vertical granite face is quickly unraveling. Pfffffftttthhh!!! A heart-pounding beginning to Slakey's fine memoir, To the Last Breath. But, lest you think this is the chronicling of Slakey's adrenaline-packed expeditions to accomplish the feat of being the first man to climb the 7 highest peaks, and surf each of the world's ocean (which he names the "surf-n-turf" journey)...it changes direction.
Slakey comes off the mountain and takes the listener back to the day his mother died, when he decides to protect himself from the pain of dissappointment and abandonment. He begins to withdraw and build a protective wall around himself, while outwardly hurtling through life, aloof and reckless. His detachment extends into his relationships and his professional life, and he vows to accomplish the surf-n-turf challenge without emotional entanglements.
The author chooses to write little about the actual physical challenges, instead detailing the effects of extremes--when a body is pushed beyond its physical limits--with great medical and scientific facts (about hypothermia, dehydration, hypoxia, jellyfish toxins, altitude sickness, even scurvy). Similar historical expeditions are recounted,their origins and outcomes. But the emphasis is clearly on the people he encounters along his way, and how those interactions shaped him, broke down his wall, and helped him find his own humanity and consciousness.
To be honest, I was looking forward to more action and less "awakening", something along the lines of Into Thin Air, but once I stopped pulling on the leash and let myself go along with this unexpected change of direction, I enjoyed this.
Towards the end, a Budhist monk gives Slakey some words of wisdom..."If you get to the end of your life and have regrets that you could have done better, then you blew it." Guess that little gem could apply to choosing this book! If before you get into this, you understand that you're not getting a high adrenaline accounting of scaling 7 peaks and riding monster waves, you might find yourself liking this soulful journey.
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