I’ve spent the last week alternately glued to and avoiding the news. The story of the final push toward the rescue of 33 miners in Chile who have been trapped beneath the ground since August was for me, too tension filled to bear. I’ve seen more than one commenter online talk about how this harrowing story is straight from the movies or fiction, and that surely a recounting of the miner’s long nightmare in either print or on film, can’t be far down the road.

Now that the miners are safely above ground, it seems okay to look at the appeal of this kind of story from the perspective of reading. It’s no surprise that this kind of tension and drama make for great literary experiences. Whether fictional accounts of disaster and rescue where you get the tension and thrills without the chance that anyone will really be hurt, or the recounting of triumphs of the past where you know everyone will get out okay – rescue stories are frequently heart pounding, soul searching explorations into the best and worst of human nature.

Here’s a few you may enjoy:

Saving Cascadia by John Nance – American author John Nance has, with over 15 published books, made quite a name for himself as a thriller author. In this title, his signature style coupling breakneck pace with a technically detailed story, Nance creates drama of an island resort. Developed against the advice of a seismologist who feared the construction work would trigger a huge earthquake, the tale unfolds as those predictions come true and a race is on to save those in the path of the resulting chaos.

Rescued: a novel by John Bevere: in reports from the Chilean mine rescue, religion and faith have been mentioned countless times. It’s not surprising to find this Christian Fiction title mixing the tension of near death with belief in a higher power. A family exploration of undersea in the Caribbean, is met with disaster and the need for rescue.

Pacific Vortex! by Clive Cussler: the exclamation point in the title tells you this one is all about thrills. From one of the biggest names in adventure fiction, this is the story of a ship lost at sea and Cussler’s hero Dirk Pitt’s attempt to find it. This isn’t just about the ship and its crew, the vessel that is lost is a nuclear sub and Pitt needs to find it before it explodes. This is the first in the mega popular series featuring Dirk Pitt.

2182 kHz by David Masiel: set on the high, cold seas of Alaska, this adventure novel features not one, but two rescue plots, a romance and a cast of great secondary characters.

Deadliest Sea : the untold story behind the greatest rescue in Coast Guard history by Kalee Thompson: an account of the real life disaster and rescue of a the crew of the Alaska Ranger, which went down in 2008 in the Bering Sea.