Most Popular Books by Eric Blehm

Chronicles the life of Navy SEAL Team Six operator Adam Brown, a man whose heroism and devotion still stand as a beacon to his friends and family, even after his death in the Afghan Hindu Kush mountains in 2010.

"As Jon Krakauer did with Into the Wild, Blehm turns a missing-man riddle into an insightful meditation on wilderness and the personal demons and angels that propel us into it alone.” — Outside magazine Destined to become a classic of adventure literature, The Last Season examines the extraordinary life of legendary backcountry ranger Randy Morgenson and his mysterious disappearance in California''s unforgiving Sierra Nevada—mountains as perilous as they are beautiful. Eric Blehm''s masterful work is a gripping detective story interwoven with the riveting biography of a complicated, original, and wholly fascinating man.

“Eric Blehm offers an insightful perspective on how Craig Kelly became the effortless icon that we all revered as well as sobering details of how his heroic journey tragically ended. The Darkest White is a must read, not just for fans of snowboarding, but for anyone looking for inspiration from an unlikely hero.”—Tony Hawk From Eric Blehm, the bestselling author of The Last Season and Fearless, comes an extraordinary new book in the vein of Into the Wild, the story of the legendary snowboarder Craig Kelly and his death in the 2003 Durrand Glacier Avalanche—a devastating and controversial tragedy that claimed the lives of seven people. On January 20, 2003, a thunderous crack rang out and a violent tide of snow barreled down the northern Selkirk Mountains in British Columbia, Canada, burying thirteen skiers and snowboarders. Among them was Craig Kelly—“the Michael Jordan of snowboarding”—a world champion who had propelled the sport into the mainstream before walking away from competitions to rekindle his passion in the untamed alpine wilds of North America. The Darkest White tells the story of Craig Kelly’s life, an extraordinary and inspiring odyssey of a latchkey kid whose athletic prowess and innovations revolutionized winter sports, carried him around the globe, and pushed him into increasingly extreme backcountry environments. It is also a definitive, immersive account of how snowboarding grew from a minor Gen X cult hobby to Olympic centerpiece and a billion-dollar business full of feuds and rivalries. This mesmerizing tribute is a cautionary portrait of the mountains, of the allure and the glory they offer, and of the avalanches they unleash with unforgiving fury. "The most unremittingly exciting book of nonfiction I have come across in recent years. I found myself reading late into recent nights wholly transfixed by every paragraph, every word."—Simon Winchester, New York Times Book Review

Professional snowboarder Todd Richards tells the story of his life, and discusses the history of snowboarding, and his role in its popularization and acceptance.

On a moonless night just weeks after September 11, 2001, a U.S. Special Forces team of Green Berets known as ODA 574 infiltrated the mountains of southern Afghanistan with a seemingly impossible mission: to foment a tribal revolt and force the Taliban to surrender. Armed solely with the equipment they could carry on their backs, shockingly scant intelligence, and their mastery of guerrilla warfare, Captain Jason Amerine and his ten men had no choice but to trust their only ally, a little-known Pashtun statesman named Hamid Karzai. Having returned from exile, Karzai—on the run from the Taliban—was traveling the countryside to raise a militia. The Only Thing Worth Dying For chronicles the most important mission in the early days of the Global War on Terror, when the men on the ground knew little about the enemy—and their commanders in Washington knew even less. With unprecedented access to surviving members of ODA 574, key war planners, and Karzai himself, award-winning author Eric Blehm cuts through the noise of politicians and high-level military officials to narrate for the first time a story of uncommon bravery and terrible sacrifice, intimately exposing the realities of unconventional warfare and nation-building in Afghanistan that continue to shape the region today.

The true story of the U.S. Army’s 240th Assault Helicopter Company and a Green Beret Staff Sergeant''s heroic mission to rescue a Special Forces team trapped behind enemy lines during the Vietnam War, from New York Times bestselling author Eric Blehm. On May 2, 1968, a twelve-man Special Forces team covertly infiltrated a small clearing in the jungles of neutral Cambodia—where U.S. forces were forbidden to operate. Their objective, just miles over the Vietnam border, was to collect evidence that proved the North Vietnamese Army was using the Cambodian sanctuary as a major conduit for supplying troops and materiel to the south via the Ho Chi Minh Trail. What the team didn’t know was that they had infiltrated a section of jungle that concealed a major enemy base. Soon they found themselves surrounded by hundreds of NVA, under attack, low on ammunition, stacking the bodies of the dead as cover in a desperate attempt to survive the onslaught. When Special Forces Staff Sergeant Roy Benavidez heard their distress call, he jumped aboard the next helicopter bound for the combat zone. What followed would become legend in the Special Operations community. Flown into the foray of battle by the 240th Assault Helicopter Company, Benavidez jumped from the hovering aircraft, ran nearly 100 yards through withering enemy fire, and--despite being immediately and severely wounded--organized an extraordinary defense and rescue of the Special Forces team. Written with extensive access to family members, surviving members of the 240th Assault Helicopter Company, on-the-ground eye-witness accounts never before published, as well as recently discovered archival, and declassified military records, Blehm has created a riveting narrative both of Roy Benavidez’s life and career, and of the inspiring, almost unbelievable events that defined the brotherhood of the air and ground warriors in an unpopular war halfway around the world. Legend recounts the courage and commitment of those who fought in Vietnam in service of their country, and the story of one of the many unsung heroes of the war.

Die Navy SEALs sind die Elitetruppe der US-Streitkräfte. Sie durchlaufen die härteste Ausbildung der Welt und werden nur in den gefährlichsten Missionen eingesetzt. Das Seal Team Six ist die Einheit, die Osama bin Laden tötete. Navy Seal Adam Brown starb im März 2010 im Kampf, während eines Einsatzes in Afghanistan. Furchtlos erzählt die Geschichte eines Mannes, der keine Angst kannte, immer alles riskierte und von seinem Glauben und der Liebe zu seiner Frau, zu seiner Familie und zu seinem Land getragen wurde. Trotz schlimmster Befürchtungen zieht er mit in einen Krieg und meldet sich für die gefährlichsten Aufgaben immer als Erster freiwillig, bis ihn seine letzte Heldentat das Leben kostet. Er hinterließ einen bewegenden Brief an seine Kinder, in dem er schrieb, dass ihm der Glaube an Gott jegliche Furcht vor dem Tod genommen und er seinen Frieden gefunden hat. In diesem einzigartigen Buch schildert Eric Blehm mit dem Insiderwissen eines echten Kenners die Geschichte von Navy Seal Adam Brown, eines heldenhaften Soldaten, der bis zu seinem Ende keine Furcht kannte.

Author Eric Blehm and illustrator Christopher Adams have teamed up again to bring you this heartwarming, brightly colored baby boardbook. Four Little Owlets will delight parents and the youngest of readers as they count along with four eggs that turn into four barn owlets, a rhyming journey from owl box to first flight.

"When a barn owl and her mate suddenly decide to nest in a suburban neighborhood, the amazing tale of Molly and McGee begins. The owls'' home, a wooden box with a camera inside, put up by a nature-loving couple in their backyard, becomes the setting for a real-life story of love, danger, mystery--and ultimately the triumph of a family. Through the little camera peeking in on their home, Molly and McGee captivated millions of people in forty-five countries around the world who shared their saga"--Dust jacket flap.