THE SURVIVOR'S CLUB: REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

GIVEAWAY ENDED
THE SURVIVORS CLUB
BY BEN SHERWOOD

ABOUT THE BOOK:

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 CLUB WILL ANSWER THAT AND MUCH MORE! Each second of the day, someone in America faces 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 of Freakonomics and The Tipping Point, this book reveals 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 also discover 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.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Ben Sherwood is a bestselling author and award-winning journalist. From 2004 to 2006, he served as executive producer of ABC News' Good Morning America and led the program to its two most successful and profitable years in its thirty-year history, breaking every ratings record. His acclaimed novel The Man Who Ate the 747 (August 2000) was a national bestseller, published in thirteen languages, and is being adapted as both a feature film and musical. His most recent novel, The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud (March 2004) was an international bestseller and is also in development as a feature film at Universal Pictures. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard College, he earned advanced degrees in history and economics as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. He lives with his wife and son in Los Angeles.

REVIEW:

After reading THE SURVIVOR'S CLUB, I am pretty sure most of us would apply for membership! Sherwood gives 3 basic rules to follow to "join the club". One is that everyone one is a survivor; two is that one person's crisis can't be compared to another's as it is all personal; and three is that people are really stronger than they think. I know I have found that last one to be very true as there have been times when I felt so bad and wanted to check into a hospital for a week to clear up all my medical issues and then a family emergency occurs and I am the leader of the band--booking flights, dealing with the powers that be, comforting others, etc.

He gives good sound advice on the many reasons people don't survive so that readers can hopefully learn from others' mistakes. One reason he gives is called the Incredulity Response where people really simply don't believe what it is they are seeing. Another he writes about is being Under Stress as a reason because in that case, people often forget and have memory problems in which they seem to forget what they are supposed to do. Another reason he discusses is Brainlock where people often die because they are unable to respond due to the shock of the situation and they forget to think. If they had been able to think, they most probably could have survived. Sherwood says "panic is the archenemy of survival".

In an easy to follow narrative, the author details many different types of character traits and personalities and how they react and are able to survive. These types range from "fighters" to "believers" to "thinkers" and to "realists. There are also a combination of multiple types like people who just won't even face reality.

He includes a quiz you can take to understand what your potential to survive is and gives tips on how to raise your score. There is also a very helpful website you can go to for more information on this.

Besides the valuable information in this book, I like the way it is organized. The chapters give examples and then deal with a topic starting with "A Knitting Needle Through the Heart: The Three Rules of the Survivors Club" in Chapter One, to "The Supersonic Man: How Much of Life (and Death) Do You Really Control?", to a favorite chapter of mine "The Science of Luck: Why Good Things Always Happen to the Same People" and ending up with the quiz and chapters in Part 2 dedicated to taking the quiz and analyzing your strengths and weaknesses. If for no other reason, this is an interesting read and just may open your eyes enough to save your life someday...surely that is worth the time to read it if nothing else.

GIVEAWAY

THANKS TO ANNA AND THE
HACHETTE BOOK GROUP, I HAVE
5 COPIES OF THIS WONDERFUL
BOOK TO GIVEAWAY!


--U.S. AND CANADIAN RESIDENTS ONLY
--NO P. O. BOXES
---INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
IN CASE YOU WIN!
--ALL COMMENTS MUST BE SEPARATE TO
COUNT AS MORE THAN ONE!

HOW TO ENTER

+1 ENTRY: COMMENT ON IF YOU THINK YOU ARE, OR WOULD BE, GOOD IN AN EMERGENCY ENOUGH TO SURVIVE A DEADLY SITUATION. WOULD THIS BOOK BE A HELP TO YOU...YES OR NO?

+1 MORE ENTRY: BLOG OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND THEN COME BACK AND LEAVE A LINK

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON IF YOU FOLLOW MY BLOG AND IF SO, CAN YOU REMEMBER IF YOU HAVE SINCE I STARTED ONE WHOLE YEAR AGO?

GIVEAWAY ENDS AT 6 PM, EST,
JANUARY 15 FOR THIS BOOK!

HOWEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ONLY THOSE PEOPLE WHO
ENTERED DURING THE BLOGIVERSARY
WEEKEND ARE ELIGIBLE FOR THE
GRAND PRIZE TO COME ON JANUARY 16...
THAT IS THEY WIN ALL 12 BOOKS

NOTE: BLOGIVERSARY WEEKEND
GRAND PRIZE ELIGIBILITY IS OVER!
BUT YOU CAN STILL WIN THIS BOOK!