I'd like to recommend a canoe adventure story. It's called "River of
Doubt" and is the Teddy Roosevelt expedition of a trib of the Amazon in
Brazil. They ran the river in dugouts and built new canoes on the spot
when the ones they started with were dashed in the rapids.

Most memorable scene to me was towards the end when one of their hired
hands went a little crazy and murdered one of the group leaders. Our
former president was all for "jungle justice" and killing the killer
then and there. The Brazilian expedition leader was horrified and said
that's not how Brazilians handle thing - that the killer was to be
apprehended and brought to justice through a court of law.

Ironically, the full title of the book is "River of Doubt: Theodore
Roosevelt's Darkest Journey".