To the End of The Earth: Our Epic Journey to the North Pole and the Legend of Peary and Henson

To the End of the Earth: Our Epic Journey to the North Pole and the Legend of Peary and Henson by Tom Avery is a fantastic journey, and makes me feel as if I could do it, even when I know that I cannot. Tom is a support of Peary and believes that he made it to the pole, and wants to prove that he did. So he sets up to try, and with a team of less than hard working sled dogs and 4 other explores, he attempts to recreate the experience as well as someone without any igloo building experience can. They see their share of peril, and strife, with their trip to the Artic Ocean, but at the same time provide support to a group of people back home and motivate them in a way that peer training seminars and experiences never could. I found the whole adventure fantastic and would get lost in the book wherever I was. I found myself refreshed reading such a cold book in the hot sun of a black car. Anticipating the upcoming adventure I was looking for excuses to read the book. It made me think about working on my own writing, in its thoroughness and in the way that Tom Avery seems to capture his own feelings and the adventures of him and his fellow travelers. I look forward to Tom Avery going on and writing about more adventures, and the changing adventure and explorer experience.

A Hell of a Place to Lose a Cow: An American Hitchhikering Odyssey

A Hell of a Place to Lose a Cow: An American Hitchhiking Odyssey by Tim Brookes is a fantastic travel narrative about something I don't have the courage to do, but enjoy reading about others whom do have that very courage. Tim Brooks does a great job about setting the stage of who he is and why he is setting off on this particular adventure. He also talks about his joys and failings on this trip, including dealing with homophobia, and the opinions of modern day America (1990's) versus how he was raised and his own current thinking on the matter. He does a good job of describing the people that he is picked up by, and who he stays with, as well as the people he meets when he doesn't actually hitchhike, including his current traveling companion and his previous travel companion. Tim Brookes has to face his past in a fairly forthright way, and I think as a result of having to face the past as he does, he provides a vivid description of current America, through eyes looking for contrasts and similarities, and not only does he succeed in his search, but finds something about himself as well, which is what hitchhiking should be about. The idea is inspiring enough for me to daydream about something I would never possibly dream of even in the age of cellular phones with cameras, and video cameras, net books, laptops, air cards, and iPods that do all of it. That's what I look for in an excellent travel narrative, the daydream to have that adventure, or one similar to it of my own.

People of the Book

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, is the book about a book. In more ways than one it is a book about the people of the book, the Jewish people, and the people of the book, the people whose lives have been touched by the Sarajevo Haggadah, specifically, the characters in her book. She does an great job of describing the people who have had a hand in the safe keeping of, and the destruction of the book, at the same time. Each of them have had a very different role in the book and connecting the stories, was magic. I was grateful to see the book written by people who have a hand in Jewish culture, and that the main character shared the same Hebrew name as I. I also enjoyed reading about the process used to restore the books. It shows how much research the author put into the book. I could follow the process from Hanna, the main character to each vignette of the book. I was impressed by the vivid descriptions, that led me to imagine living in these various roles, in the books history. The book even does a good job of explaining any words that are used that are out of the normal reader, not the unintelligent readers, will have previously encountered in their regular reading, which makes me as the normal reader feel that the story is fantastically easy to follow. A Jewish reader may feel as though they have the upper hand over another reader initially when they pick up the book, but Ms. Brooks does a fantastic job of making the book not about being Jewish, or being repressed, but about the history of a BOOK, a thing of learning of intelligence and history, and a thing that in the end has touched the souls of all whom have laid hands on it, and have used it over the years. That makes it a book to read and enjoy the experience.

A Field Guide To Getting Lost

A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit turned out to be a terrible disappointment. Her book was a series of essays on the existential idea of getting lost. The idea of getting lost existentially is a good one, but one can get lost in a good book, as well as in the wilderness. I thought that the book would be about the idea of getting lost in the wilderness, or in the city scape, about being aware of your surroundings and getting lost in the beauty of a sunset. In a way each of the articles deal with her getting lost in those environment, but not how we can as individuals get lost in those surrounds, so that we can create our own lost experiences. The Publishers Weekly expressed some of the same concerns about the book, saying that the book leaves the reader feel lost while reading it. Solnit seems to be lost in her own words and isn't apologetic about it, but leaves the reader behind in her wandering and rambling. She's not really int rested in interesting her readers, as much as rambling to herself, much as one would on a blog or in a journal, but she happens to be a respected and published author with other books that have granted her the right to publish a book of her ramblings that otherwise would not have gotten published, and she may have had to think about what the book really meant, and maybe she would have produced a book on existentialism rather than the idea of getting lost.

Ah yet another blog

After looking at my reviews of the books I read on a regular basis, on my regular weekly blog, it became a little overwhelming. I decided that I had a few too many books read during the week, so I have decided to form a book review blog. This way each book can have its own entry and its own review. Look forward to three to four books for each week to be posted. I called the blog book of the day club because that's how many books I read each day, but due to a schedule issue, expect publication to be approximately once to twice a week.