Deep into the Amazon Jungle

Alas - onward! How about a wild stomp into one of the wildest places on Earth?

Just by chance, I have come up with the next idea for the book club. A whole series of books that revolve a loose theme: the Amazon Jungle. Each book here could stand alone and several do not focus on the Amazon specifically - but together I am hoping that something more than the sum of the parts will emerge.

Here are my ideas:

The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard. The story of Teddy Roosevelt's search for adventure that nearly came to a disastrous end after Roosevelt lost a third-party bid for the White House in 1912.

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann. The story of British explorer, Percy Fawcett, who launched his final expedition into the depths of the Amazon in Brazil in 1925 only to disappear. His destination was the lost mythical city of El Dorado, the “City of Gold,” an ancient kingdom of great sophistication, architecture, and culture.

Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City by Greg Grandin. This is the story of Henry Ford's ill-advised attempt to transform raw Brazilian rainforest into homespun slices of Americana.

Savages by Joe Kane. The story of the Huaorani, a tribe living in the deepest part of the Amazonian rain forest in Ecuador who have only in the last generation been exposed to such items as the wristwatch and are having to deal with their homeland being invaded by oil companies.

City of Beasts by Isabel Allende. A young adult novel with fantasy elements set in the Amazon rainforest on a search for a legendary nine-foot-tall "Beast."

Thoughts?