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421 reviews for:
Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube: Chasing Fear and Finding Home in the Great White North
Blair Braverman
3.89 AVERAGE
421 reviews for:
Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube: Chasing Fear and Finding Home in the Great White North
Blair Braverman
3.89 AVERAGE
I don't think I could adore Blair Braverman more than I do.
I alternated between liking and disliking thia book. because it wasn't a hate story about the cold, I had my doubts that it would hold my interest. However, there was more to it than just a gal who loves the cold. Here was detail of dogsledding, which is it wasn't run on snow, I'd be all over.
I really wanted to like this, because I thought it would be a fascinating read about an interesting life with dogs and the challenges she overcame. Instead, I found it to be very little dog content and a whole lot of sexual assault (It's rape, Dan, should be the hashtag for this book) and unhappiness. I agree with another reviewer who mentioned that this memoir falls under the type of thing that didn't need to be a book but rather a therapist session. I got about halfway through the audiobook before I realized I just was not enjoying it. I'm glad she felt comfortable writing this story but it simply was not for me.
Well-written and insightful, this book is a fascinating look at a world I knew nothing about. I'm in awe of the author's strength and resilience.
Nice, quick read. Braverman has a way of bringing her along with you, and was easy to root for, and while I will never run sled dogs in Norway or anywhere else, her story nevertheless felt familiar to me.
I am incredibly tired of books misrepresenting themselves in order to create a larger audience. A direct quote from the blurb:
"Determined to carve out a life as a 'tough girl'—a young woman who confronts danger without apology—she slowly developed the strength and resilience the landscape demanded of her."
I thought this was going to be a book about woman versus wild. After all, men get lots of books about man versus wild - being shaped by the landscape, learning to handle themselves, etc. There is a little bit of that. We hear about a harrowing night on a sled during the author's time at Folk school and there are some nice breaks in the story where she talks about interning for a good dogsledder and her first sled race, but that's really it for "the strength and resilience the landscape demanded of her."
Instead, this book is mostly about her continuing experiences of sexual harassment and assault by men. I know these things happen. It's something I think about constantly as a woman who often hikes and travels alone. For that reason, I choose not to read books that center that experience: for one thing it's frankly so mundane that it bores me. On the other hand, it's also one of the worst things you can experience because it is so mundane and common and being perpetually reminded of how unsafe it is to exist as a woman among men is not something I'm interested in using my free time to think on.
If the book had been honestly marketed, I wouldn't have picked it up. I don't fault the writer for writing it. It's her story. She should write the life story she wants to write. I do fault the editor/publisher/marketer, etc. who seem to have made a point to never once mention that the "fear" she's chasing seems to be perpetually ending up in places where men harm her. I picked up this book specifically because men get to write stories about surviving the dangers of nature, whereas women get to write stories about surviving rape and assault. I wanted to have a story for us about nature and blizzards and ice storms and actual adventure. If I can't have that, at the very least you shouldn't draw me in under false pretenses and then throw tale of harassment after tale of harassment at me.
The writing is good to fine. It's a proper memoir in that it wanders from place to place and time to time and mostly gives us brief, bright things in order to break up what is otherwise a tale of men verbally and physically harassing her. Not the adventure read I was promised.
"Determined to carve out a life as a 'tough girl'—a young woman who confronts danger without apology—she slowly developed the strength and resilience the landscape demanded of her."
I thought this was going to be a book about woman versus wild. After all, men get lots of books about man versus wild - being shaped by the landscape, learning to handle themselves, etc. There is a little bit of that. We hear about a harrowing night on a sled during the author's time at Folk school and there are some nice breaks in the story where she talks about interning for a good dogsledder and her first sled race, but that's really it for "the strength and resilience the landscape demanded of her."
Instead, this book is mostly about her continuing experiences of sexual harassment and assault by men. I know these things happen. It's something I think about constantly as a woman who often hikes and travels alone. For that reason, I choose not to read books that center that experience: for one thing it's frankly so mundane that it bores me. On the other hand, it's also one of the worst things you can experience because it is so mundane and common and being perpetually reminded of how unsafe it is to exist as a woman among men is not something I'm interested in using my free time to think on.
If the book had been honestly marketed, I wouldn't have picked it up. I don't fault the writer for writing it. It's her story. She should write the life story she wants to write. I do fault the editor/publisher/marketer, etc. who seem to have made a point to never once mention that the "fear" she's chasing seems to be perpetually ending up in places where men harm her. I picked up this book specifically because men get to write stories about surviving the dangers of nature, whereas women get to write stories about surviving rape and assault. I wanted to have a story for us about nature and blizzards and ice storms and actual adventure. If I can't have that, at the very least you shouldn't draw me in under false pretenses and then throw tale of harassment after tale of harassment at me.
The writing is good to fine. It's a proper memoir in that it wanders from place to place and time to time and mostly gives us brief, bright things in order to break up what is otherwise a tale of men verbally and physically harassing her. Not the adventure read I was promised.
This was ok. My disappointment lies in the fact that I wanted more stories about the mushing and dog sledding. There is some of that but not very much. Felt more like a true-life coming of age, which I was not expecting.
This woman chose to chase fear rather than run from it. A vivid emotional memoir which astounded me with it's detail. I loved this book.
I really enjoyed her voice and the time jumps taking us through her growth