* The Wager by David Grann

When I was a kid, I was given the standard adventure books for children a la 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and I remember wondering why they were so popular. Sure, they were chock-full of adventures, but I could not really see the point. I had a similar impression with The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, which describes the extraordinary (true!) adventures of a handful of survivors of the shipwreck of a British naval ship in Patagonia. The story is based on the accounts that three different groups of survivors made to the Royal Navy, years after the wreck. There are lots of corpses, monstrous waves, scheming against the captain. I could not wait for the end.