Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

Why I'd hand it to you

Few true stories hold up like this one. In 1915 the ice crushed Shackleton's ship, and his crew spent months on drifting floes before a small-boat crossing of open ocean to find help. Lansing wrote it in the 1950s from the men's diaries and interviews with survivors, so it feels close and specific. The real draw is the leadership: Shackleton kept morale steady, made hard calls and never stopped thinking about every man. If you lead anything, a team, a company or a family, there is a lot here. Fair warning: long stretches are cold, wet waiting, and that is the point. Readers who want fast action on every page may drift.

— Matt Jordan