Danger in the Desert: True Adventures of a Dinosaur Hunter

 Danger in the Desert: True Adventures of a Dinosaur Hunter by Roger Cohen is the incredible and true story of Roy Chapman Andrews, an American explorer who wore a fedora, carried a pistol, and had no less that ten confrontations with danger and death. Sounds like the real-life Indiana Jones model that Spielberg might have used! Quoted by Roy, “ I can remember just ten times when I had really narrow escapes from certain death. Two were from drowning in typhoons, one was when our boat was charged by a wounded whale, once my wife and I were nearly eaten by wild dogs, once we were in great danger from fanatical lama priests, two were close calls when I fell over cliffs, once I was nearly strangled by a huge reticulated python and twice I might have been shot and killed by bandits.”

 My favorite part of the book was just reading about the exploits of this great adventurer. Hearing how he survived when his boat capsized in a cold Wisconsin river while his mentor and friend Monty died. How he discovered the first ever fossilized dinosaur eggs and not to mention his discovery of the Flaming Cliffs in the Gobi, the world’s richest trove of dinosaur bones and where eight new dinosaurs were discovered by Roy and his team.

 Roger Cohen wrote this book by interviewing Mongolians whom Roy had 

known. This is a great book, and for those of you who want to nurture the explorer inside of you, this is a must-read.