Rating: 
Summary: Worst-Case Scenario is fun and entertaining.
Review: I found this little treasure by the cash register in my favourite book store and began to thumb through it. When I noticed that the line behind me was growing and growling, I quickly added it to my purchases. I stopped and finished chapter 1 (Great Escapes and Entrances) on one of the mall benches, another chapter before I managed to turn the car on and yet another chapter in the driveway. This book is riveting and I'd be surprised if anyone could pick it up without finding something to exclaim over. Ever wondered how those criminals on COPS manage to ram police cars without killing themselves? Read this book! You'll learn that the first step is to try to disable the air bag so it won't obstruct your view after the impact. Planning on a trip to the everglades where you'll be up to your a** in aligators? Check out the "How to Wrestle Free from an Alligator" section. Those with a strong stomach can learn how to perform an emergency cricothyroidotomy. (that's a tracheotomy to those of us without a medical degree) If you have a 13 year old who hasn't found a book interesting enough to read, this is the book. Beware of introducing it to 7 year olds unless you want to introduce them to the emergency ward. It's one of those rare books that can inspire hours of laughter and conversation and which crosses the gender and age barrier with no problem.
Rating: 
Summary: Buyer Beware
Review: Let the buyer beware! Anyone silly and naive enough to think that there is actually anything practical enough to warrant them shelling out their hard earned cash for this thin volume deserves to be rid of their excess money. By the way, I have some prime real estate in coastal Florida I could sell you on the sly; just drain the (sea0 water and you'll have a terrific view. Of course, you could always save the planet's bulk paper supply by just throwing the money you're willing to spend for this thin tome into the latrine, and with about the same effect as bothering with this trite, silly, and absolutely ridiculous book. PT Barnum once said that no one ever lost a single dollar underestimating the intellectual tastes of the American consumer, and this book is proof of that. You are better off to watch old MacGiver episodes than to read this nonsense. You are much more likely to get hit by lightning than you are to find yourself in any of these situations, especially if you don't live in a mountainous area (for avalanches) etc. I rated this a "one" because the Amazon rating system doesn't allow negative numbers. Beware!
Rating: 
Summary: Guidance for movie-style life danger
Review: If life were like "MacGyver," like "Mission: Impossible II," like Eyewitness News, "The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook" would be a high school textbook. Distributed in Home Economics or Basic Life Skills 101. "Worst-Case Scenario," by Joshua Priven and David Borgenicht, is a small, emergency-orange paperback that astoundingly has landed unscathed onto the bestseller lists. It gives practical instructions on how to escape from quicksand, how to escape from a sinking car and how to escape from lions and sharks and bears. (Oh, my!) It presents handy advice on how to leap from buildings into a dumpster, and in my favorite chapter, "How to Maneuver on Top of a Moving Train and Get Inside." Each situation is pictured in airline-seat safety-card style with matter-of-fact instructions. If life were like summer movies, this would be news you could use. You can alarm mountain lions by opening your coat to appear larger. You can fight off sharks by hitting them, but not in the nose. Hitting them on the nose doesn't do that much. Alligators are what you hit on the nose. "Alligators often open their mouths when tapped lightly," it notes helpfully. (Helpful hint: "Cover the alligator's eyes.") To be sure, there are times the book disappoints with sadly obvious, remove-wrapper-before-placing-in-oven style of advice. (To escape from killer bees: "Get indoors as fast as you can.") It teases you by promising "How to Identify a Bomb." ("Check for unevenly balanced parcels")Yet it doesn't say how to defuse a bomb. (Is it the red wire or the blue that you take out first? I always forget.) This is neither a militia training manual or adolescent escapist reading. I found it evoked the great literary themes. From the Hemingwayesque, "How to deal with a Charging Bull" and "How to Take a Punch" to the echoes of Jack London in "How to Make Fire Without Matches," the book harkens back to this nation's rich tradition of literary naturalism. I'm not sure, though, where "How to Jump from a Building into a Dumpster" fits into that tradition. But it does. This book is welcome summer reading, not only because this is the season when daring people like myself encounter sharks, alligators, bears and dumpsters. But because it's a time when movie screens explode with absurdly dangerous situations. We see this action, we understand the logic of summer movies and are humbled by the suspicion that in similar situations, we'd be dead in three frames. Like a hapless extra, gone in a flicker. But reading this book, I felt reassured. Yes. Should I need to move atop a moving train, I would crouch, scurry from side to side and lie flat when I see a tunnel. (Unless I were a bad guy. Then, I'd stand up and gloat at the heroes before my richly earned demise.) I read this book and I know I should tune an airplane radio to 121.5 and ask for assistance on the emergency channel while I take the controls. And I'll make sure I won't land on one if I jump from the office roof into a dumpster. I can see myself dropping slow-motion through the air. With an orange copy of "Worst-Case Scenario" clutched firmly in one hand.
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Summary: It's not just a great guy book!
Review: No one would ever call me butch, but I have always been disgusted at the women in adventure movies who squeal at snakes and wobble after their brave companions with heels, one broken. This book answers some of my more imaginative questions, as well as introducting an empowering plan for possible scenarios. You just never know... I have been laughed at by friends for wanting a portable rope ladder for my apartment (which has no fire escape) in case of fire or need to escape quickly. Now I have a book that justifies my desires to have a game plan. Thanks Joshua and David for not only giving me a great coffee table book, but a reference guide to have on hand! Let's all learn to return!
Rating:
Summary: A Little Knowledge Can Be a Wonderful Thing
Review: This is one of those little books that I have always been looking for. While most people may never encounter the scenarios outlined, you never know. Seemingly trivial information sometimes is the thing that saves one's life (read any survival story... "Alive", for example). At age 18, little did I know that I would work at a lift plant teeming with alligators or age 31, working in a correctional setting. This book can give you that "knowledge is power" edge that so many of us want when we find ourselves in situations outside of our control.
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Summary: Humorous Serious Guide to Stallbusting Paranoia and Phobias
Review: How many times have you heard someone say, "I'd never parachute out of a plane. What if my parachute didn't open?" Well, this is the book for them, because now you'll know exactly what to do (along with pictures of how to hook your arms into the harness of a fellow parachute jumper mid-fall). I know people who won't go camping because they might get a snake bite (that's covered here), attacked by a bear (yup, that one, too), be chased by a mountain lion (sure enough, it's here), or be assaulted by killer bees (yessir, that's covered). My Mother used to worry about who would land the plane if the pilot had a heart attack. With this plane, she would know how to do it herself. Those with phobias often do better if they know more about the thing they fear. This book has to be great for such people! All of the advice is serious at one level (written by experts) and humor at another level (describing something terrifying in the same way you'd give directions for baking a cake). That's what makes it irresistible. As a result, it's a whole new genre of book. I hope the authors will do more like this one. On the other hand, I've always wanted to know more about how to hot-wire a car (car thefts and sales of Lo-Jack should soar), start a fire without matches, jump from a motorcycle into a car, perform a tracheotomy, dodge in a gun fight, and handle an avalanche. I thought it was great to learn more about these! Presumably, a different list will excite you. I loved the warning at the beginning of the book: "DO NOT ATTEMPT TO UNDERTAKE THE ACTIVITIES DESCRIBED IN THIS BOOK YOURSELF." You are supposed to get an expert to do them for you. That reminded me of a true story a friend told me about going bear tracking with a guide to take pictures. As the bear tracking went on, he asked the guide what to do if a bear attacked. He was advised to whistle a certain tune. Then, one day, he thought he heard a bear and was so frightened he couldn't whistle right then. He looked around for the tracker, and he was long gone! So much for expert help in dangerous places. The 40 dangerous or challenging situations are listed under great escapes and entrances, best defense, leaps of faith, emergencies, and adventure survival. You can learn how to handle yourself in a sword fight, find your way out of a desert, survive adrift at sea, defibrillate someone, and treat frostbite. The Boy Scout manual was never this good! One of the great things about this book is that people love to talk about it. A woman spotted me reading my copy, and walked over to start a conversation. You'll have the basis for many cocktail party stories and discussions for years from this material. Enjoy your new life as a stunt double trainee!
Rating: 
Summary: A Fun Fast Paced Book and Then Nothing !
Review: An initially interesting book that describes in detail how to get out of some selective threatful situations, be it man made (guns, cars etc.) or initiated by nature (dangerous animals, storms etc.). The only lowpoint of the book is once you read it either it goes on the shelf, garbage or to a friend. There is nothing substantive developed beyond the unique sitautions the book poses which 99.99% of the readers will never experience.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining
Review: The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook certainly contains some "cool" stuff, but really, how often are you going to need to leap from a motorcycle to a car or work your way out of quicksand? Me either. However, WCSSH does provide an immense entertainment value.
The material is serious, but the collection makes me suspect there is a subtle sense of humor behind it, which of course, affords the possibility for follow-ons targeted towards our "Real World" lives, such as what to do if: * Your dinner host serves red wine with shellfish * The IRS wants to audit you * You get pulled over for driving way too fast in Louisiana AND have out-of-state tags * During a company presentation, you discover your fly is open The information appears to be sound, however it's obviously not intended to convey knowledge beyond a superficial level. For example, in the "How to Land An Airplane" example, it rightly suggests starting a landing at 1000 feet above ground, but there's no indication how one determines what the airport elevation is. A subtle point, but very important if you're attempting to land at Seattle-Tacoma International (429 feet) or Boeing Field (18 feet) five miles away. Overall, it's a very entertaining book.
Rating:
Summary: I expected more.
Review: This book is more like an entertaining pamphlet. If you're browsing for curiosity, this book will work. It lightly details delivering a child, allegator wrestling and so forth. If you're looking for a survival manual, try PRIMITIVE WILDERNESS SKILLS: Applied and Advanced or SAS Survival Manual. I'm back to get SAS Survival Manual, regretting that a friend paid what he did to buy this book for me.
Rating:
Summary: 2 Far Out
Review: If you buy this book for entertainment only, you'll have gotten your money's worth. Proabably only 1 in 1,000,000 people will ever need to know how to escape from an alligator or fend off a snark, but there's a lot of practical infromation as well like hot wiring or breaking into (your own) car. Maybe you'll never to to know how to escape from a bear, but if the book saves just one life...what a bargain. A great read and a lot of fun too.
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