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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
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Negative stars :(
Trigger warning on this book: emotional, physical and sexual assault is the main topic of this book
This book is NOT about dog-sledding or learning to dog sled.
I heard the author on a podcast and she sounded so fun and interesting and how cool to hear/read about a female dog sledder. That is not this book..... The author takes us on a winding road and time jumps of lack of autonomy, spine or a voice but claiming she does. I understand that this starts in her teen years and we all make poor decisions or get ourselves into things that we later on go "wow! what was I thinking", basically this book is about her getting herself into really bad and scary situations repeatedly and not learning from past experiences. This is not a "blame the victim" comment, I kept waiting for her to have an epiphany or wrap up the book with what she learned from these experiences and that she got the support she needed. That did not happen, the book sort of just ends.... There are to many books out there to waste your time on this one. This is a skip it.
Trigger warning on this book: emotional, physical and sexual assault is the main topic of this book
This book is NOT about dog-sledding or learning to dog sled.
I heard the author on a podcast and she sounded so fun and interesting and how cool to hear/read about a female dog sledder. That is not this book..... The author takes us on a winding road and time jumps of lack of autonomy, spine or a voice but claiming she does. I understand that this starts in her teen years and we all make poor decisions or get ourselves into things that we later on go "wow! what was I thinking", basically this book is about her getting herself into really bad and scary situations repeatedly and not learning from past experiences. This is not a "blame the victim" comment, I kept waiting for her to have an epiphany or wrap up the book with what she learned from these experiences and that she got the support she needed. That did not happen, the book sort of just ends.... There are to many books out there to waste your time on this one. This is a skip it.
I almost gave this 3 stars, but the end really saved it. Read until the end.
If the title bothers you, please try to see past it. This is one of the best memoirs I have ever read. Incredibly well written.
Much less the memoir of a female dogsled musher and much more a memoir of the author figuring out herself and what it means to feel safe. I definitely had a #metoo moment reading this, with one line in particular. Interesting how encounters we have as young women have such intense power to shape our lives or beliefs or later encounters. Some might say this book is triggering, but for me it was more like, I picked this book up as an in-between read, then found I couldn't put it down and am still thinking about it days later. Would recommend.
Audio booked which I usually don’t do, but Bler read it so that was nice. Good 3.5 rounded up.
A bit confusing jumping between different periods of life. I expected more info and time on the dog sledding. Lots of sexual assault which was super unexpected. An interesting read nonetheless.
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
I had a hard time knowing how to rate this book -- I picked it up because I liked Small Game and enjoyed Blair from her appearances on podcasts, as well as having always had an interest in mushing, but I was not prepared for the book to be much more of an anthology of every awful man in the north. The writing was good and I appreciate her sharing her experiences, but it was a tough and frequently unenjoyable read.
This is a memoir of Blair Braverman and her time living mostly in Norway, but also on an Alaskan glacier. She first went to Norway as a foreign exchange student in high school and found that she enjoyed living in the cold weather. She found a way to stay in Norway after her high school experience was over, by attending a Dog-Sled Folk school. While learning to drive sled dogs, she encountered a shopkeeper named Arild and his wife Anne and became close friends with them. She writes candidly about falling in love while working in Alaska and helping Arild shear sheep when she's not helping him run his store. This was a fascinating book to read about life in Norway! I am giving it four stars!
3.5 stars. Loved reading about the North, was less happy to find gender violence where I wasn't looking for it. Not the author's fault, though I found her frustrating at times.