Scan barcode
xenalia's review
3.0
I don’t even know why I continued reading this book after about the 3rd page when the author states “it was an unsuccessful expedition” they didn’t accomplish what they set out to do.
Well, thanks for ruining the suspense and hope.
It mostly read like fact spewing. Just a recount of the crew member journals. It was very dry.
Then later the author reveals that the crew members were alive and rescued before we even start a rescue journey.
What’s the point of reading the book when you already tell me the outcome.
And then we get to survival of the crew members only to find out, it was cold and they didn’t have anything to eat.
Idk it wasn’t written very well IMO.
I would have liked more suspense- are they or aren’t they going to survive?
It was a very interesting story especially bc of their perseverance. I can’t imagine surviving all that they endured.
Well, thanks for ruining the suspense and hope.
It mostly read like fact spewing. Just a recount of the crew member journals. It was very dry.
Then later the author reveals that the crew members were alive and rescued before we even start a rescue journey.
What’s the point of reading the book when you already tell me the outcome.
And then we get to survival of the crew members only to find out, it was cold and they didn’t have anything to eat.
Idk it wasn’t written very well IMO.
I would have liked more suspense- are they or aren’t they going to survive?
It was a very interesting story especially bc of their perseverance. I can’t imagine surviving all that they endured.
cmbohn's review
4.0
Themes: teamwork, exploration, endurance, determination, hardship
Setting: the Antarctic and South Polar regions, 1914-1916
These guys give a whole new level to tough. Shackleton was amazing. I love this book too because it has many of the original photographs taken by Hurley,the expedition photographer. This one was a book club pick; otherwise, I don't know if I would have picked it up. I read another book, Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Journey, a few years ago, and I didn't really plan on reading another book about the same subject. But I'm glad I picked this up. I think in some ways Lansing's book was better, but this one did a better job of telling what happened after the trip was over, and it had all the photos. I'm looking forward to the discussion. Very good. 4 stars
Setting: the Antarctic and South Polar regions, 1914-1916
These guys give a whole new level to tough. Shackleton was amazing. I love this book too because it has many of the original photographs taken by Hurley,the expedition photographer. This one was a book club pick; otherwise, I don't know if I would have picked it up. I read another book, Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Journey, a few years ago, and I didn't really plan on reading another book about the same subject. But I'm glad I picked this up. I think in some ways Lansing's book was better, but this one did a better job of telling what happened after the trip was over, and it had all the photos. I'm looking forward to the discussion. Very good. 4 stars
tony_t's review
5.0
I read a condensed version of Shackleton's incredible adventure years ago. I think it was a Scholastic paperback I bought through school and the story stuck in my mind even after many years. I was a bit afraid that Caroline Alexander's retelling of the 1914 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition might be a disappointment. I could not have been more wrong. This volume, even more that the one that captured my imagination all those years ago, rekindled my amazement at the 28 men who were part of the most successful failure in the history of polar exploration. Incredible feats of leadership, seamanship, and navigation all captured by superb photography and first-person diaries. As the co-curator of the Shackleton exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, Alexander had unlimited access to the materials from the expedition. The book is beautifully laid out in an 8x9-inch format and liberally augmented with the Frank Hurley photographs from the expedition. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in polar exploration or stories of men persevering over incredible odds.
abrandle's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
3.75
sunshineariel's review
3.0
I got most of the way through this book - the pictures were pretty amazing, but the story just plodded along. I felt like I'd had enough at about the halfway point.
kerryann's review
5.0
The pictures of the Endurance expedition are superlative. This is book is a treasure for what it puts into the hands of the household library. I wish I could have seen the exhibition in NY.
stonypockets's review
4.0
I picked up this book by accident, thinking it was the Alfred Lansing account. I ended up reading them both, and am glad I had this version, from the Nat'l History Museum, to supplement the other. About a third of it is pictures, and they are amazing. The other, more famous book has only 4 or 5 slides. The text is very similar, with the Lansing version being a little bit more readable. An interesting tidbit I got from my chance reading of this book is that one of the famous pictures from the ordeal, called 'The Rescue,' (showing a boat approaching the island where the men were marooned, the men's arms raised in cheers, victory) was actually the complete opposite scenario, 'The Departure.' It was the men seeing off Shackleton in his valiant attempt to cross 850 miles of open ocean in essentially a big rowboat to reach a less remote island. The photographer thought he needed a more climactic picture of their rescue. But the author made a good point about the truth being much more compelling than the fiction. Here these men are, after about a year and a half of enduring the harshest environment on our planet, knowing that not a soul on the earth knows where they are, and how all their hopes of survival rest on this little dingy, practically a suicide mission, and they are still able to raise their fists in a sailors' cheer. It's bravery in the face of such desperation and resignation.