In the Land of White Death: An Epic Story of Survival in the Siberian Arctic Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is a worthwhile read if you enjoy harrowing stories of near-death polar adventures. It's amazing that Albanov survived. His book is a combination of excerpts from his detailed diary and elaborations he added after the fact, supplemented by an informational preface from the publisher who recently discovered his almost-forgotten manuscript.
If you have already read "Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage" by Alfred Lansing, this book isn't quite as good, but it is an interesting contrast. (If you haven't, put Endurance on your must-read list!) The challenges faced were similar, though not quite as extended in Albanov's case.
This story starts in much the same way as the Endurance - a ship trapped in pack ice (though in this case in the Arctic). But this is where the story diverges. The biggest difference that you learn up-front is that only two people survived (compared to the whole crew on the Endurance!)
Albanov is the navigator but does not get along with the captain. As a result, after two winters (!) enduring their relationship and the worsening conditions, he asks for permission to build a kayak and sledge from scrap and set out on his own in search of land. Much to his disappointment, however, half the crew (even many of the weaker ones) ask to accompany him.
Their destination is "Cape Flora" about 120 miles away across pack ice. According to a polar explorer's diary from decades ago, Cape Flora once had a shelter and supplies. But they really don't even know if it still exists and exactly how to get there. And if it is still there - what then? But Albanov is able to focus on the immediate goal and not worry about the what if's.
Interestingly, the crew was not a group of explorers anticipating adventure, but opportunists looking to make money in the walrus-hunting trade. This could have contributed to their low survival rate. Albanov complains about his companions a lot - their laziness, stupidity. But from Albanov's first hand account, the reader can infer that he was a loner. I couldn't help but wonder whether a leader like Shackleton could have brought out the best in the group and had a higher chance of surviving.
Anyway, it is truly amazing that Albanov and one of his companions survive all the crazy challenges they are delt - snowblidness, hunger, cold, scurvy, lack of maps, drifting pack ice, angry walruses, almost drowning, and so on.
This is a short book, and a good page-turner. Although it's not as good as Endurance, it's still a good read.

Click Here to see more reviews about: In the Land of White Death: An Epic Story of Survival in the Siberian Arctic

Get 32% OFF

Click here for more information about In the Land of White Death: An Epic Story of Survival in the Siberian Arctic

Miner Wisdom Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This book is the pre-eminate authority on mining and being wise while doing it. Stephen Wzorek (no relation) paints a picture in the mind that only few others have been able to capture so vividly. Kudos Mr Wzorek, Kudos!
I can't wait to read the next addition to the anthology.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Miner Wisdom

Click here for more information about Miner Wisdom

Secret Stories in the Art of the Northwest Indian Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Oral history is essential to native cultures. It lives in parables that are passed through the generations, and often the only instances of recording these stories exist in the artwork. Newman (Bounding Warrior) illustrates this point with both the words and art of northwest Indians. It's a personal journey for Newman, who is in effect continuing the tradition of his ancestors with a beautiful and captivating collection

Click Here to see more reviews about: Secret Stories in the Art of the Northwest Indian

A noted architect and city planner, Oscar Newman now spends his time in the Catskill Mountain region of New York State, pursuing an artistic career.

Click here for more information about Secret Stories in the Art of the Northwest Indian

Through the First Antarctic Night - Centennial Edition Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)It is a treat to see this work available again to the general reading public for a number of reasons. First, the book remains as fresh, exciting, and stylistically pleasing as it did when first appearing many years ago. Also, the book helps clarify and confirm the skills of the remarkable Frederick Cook as a writer of great merit, a photographer of immense talent, an intrepid and resourceful explorer, and perhaps above all as a kind and helpful human being both toward his fellow travellers and toward the indigenous peoples through whose lands he travelled over his long exploring career.
These talents of Cook's have been too often obscured by the intense and often acrimonious debates that have raged for nearly a century over whether he really achieved his claims of having been the first man to climb Alaska's Mount Mckinley and the first man to reach the North Pole. Whether he achieved those claims or not, his achievements on the expedition to Antartica recounted in this book cannot be denied as he played a vital role in keeping the crew as physically and psychologically sound as was possible during the long Antarctic night while their ship, THE BELGICA, lay trapped in the grinding ice. Cook was ahead of his time in realizing that raw penguin meat would protect the crew from scurvy and that sitting in front of a hot bright fire would help counteract symptoms of what we now call "seasonal affective disorders" that include depression, withdrawal, and other emotional problems. Cook was also instrumental in devising a system of digging and blasting out canals through the ice that allowed the ship to eventually escape into open water many months earlier than would otherwise have been possible. During their many months of confinement, Cook and his companions were pioneers in being the first to travel out onto the continent and experiment with Cook's novel ideas of sleds (they used a sail when the wind was favorable) and tents (Cook's design became a lightweight and sturdy standard for many future espeditions.)
But Cook is generous with praise for the other members of this international crew that included the Captain, Adrian de Gerlache who, though first forbidding Cook to serve raw penguin, was in general an enlightened leader who was instrumental in helping Cook in the planning and execution of their strategy for digging out of their predicament. We meet, too, the young Roald Amundsen who would become a lifelong friend of Cook's and who would later become famous for being the first man to reach the South Pole in his famous race against the ill-fated Scott expedition.
Cook's extraordinary photographic gift is amply shown in his famous moonlight picture of THE BELGICA as it sits trapped, its deck and rigging glittering in a sheath of ice. This picture, and others, astound when we consider the primitive equipment in use at the end of the Nineteenth century.
Cook brings home the excitement, the beauty, and the tragedy of this remarkable tale with a wonderfully descriptive writing style that will win over those readers with a yen for adventures of exploration, not only of a place but of the human heart and mind.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Through the First Antarctic Night - Centennial Edition

Narrative of the first expedition to spent the longAntarctic night below the Antarctic Circle.The "Belgica" wasicebound in the Bellinghausen Sea for over a year, becoming a virtuallaboratory of human endurance for its 19-member multinational crew.The cereers of both of the future discoverers of the Poles--RoaldAmundson (South Pole 1911) and Frederick A. Cook (North Pole 1908)werejoined in this expedition.This account by Cook, the ship's surgeon,was first published in 1900.New color photos and essays by two Polarhistorians comprise the Centennial reprint edition.

Click here for more information about Through the First Antarctic Night - Centennial Edition

The WASP FACTORY: A NOVEL Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This book was recommended to me by a friend, who said he loved its wicked sense of humor. Named one of the best 100 novels of the last century by The Independent, "The Wasp Factory" certainly seems to have a strong cult following, as most of the highly favorable reviews here attest, but I find all this rather baffling. While not by any means a terrible book, Iain Banks's first novel is simply too messy and amateurish to qualify as a great novel. First of all, enjoying this book requires that one have a high tolerance for detailed descriptions of cruelty to animals, including the mutilation and immolation of many rabbits and dogs. Some of the violence in the book is actually quite funny, and can be enjoyed on a certain macabre level -- such as the narrator's description of an uncle's suicide gone terribly wrong -- but most of it is simply too dark and literally described to be laughable. It often seems that Banks is trying to shock without really thinking of the larger implications of any of the book's violence. While I read "The Wasp Factory," I kept hoping for a denouement that would tie everything together and create a resonance that the bulk of the novel lacked. Unfortunately, all I got was a transparent twist that lent nothing to the events that had preceded it, and seemed designed only to shock. In truth, the novel's twist is no more profound than the climax of the slasher film "Sleepaway Camp." I got the feeling that Banks really felt he was creating something on the level of an O. Henry story, but what he ended up with is a book that reads like a juvenile poison pen letter to all of humanity, and little more.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The WASP FACTORY: A NOVEL

Get 20% OFF

Click here for more information about The WASP FACTORY: A NOVEL

Navigating the Night Sky: How to Identify the Stars and Constellations (Patrick Moore's Practical Astronomy Series) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Not only is this book interesting to read, but each night I go outside I'm able to identify something new in the night sky. The text is very interesting and accessible, and the diagrams and figures in this book are really clear and explanatory.
What made me choose this book over others is one figure that shows some of the stars in the night sky, (white stars on black background), the same figure only black dots (stars) on white background, and the third figure the same black stars with constellation groupings drawn in. (What I've just described can be seen in the "look inside this book" section on Amazon.)
There is another figure of a patch of night sky with different viewing conditions: in a brightly lit city (only a few stars visible), on the outskirts of a city (more stars visible), and in a dark area (lots of stars visible). This kind of image is invaluable to me as a novice living in a city - it is now easy to recognize the different constellations in my night sky because I'm not lost in a star map with too many dots.
This same map technique is carried over into celestial maps of different areas of the sky, only instead of showing different viewing conditions, there is a star map (black dots/constellations/stars shown on white background with corresponding names & labels) and then the same view, with just the white stars on the black background, just as one will be seeing it in the night sky.
There are lots of other drawings,diagrams and tables that illustrate things like the ecliptic, the celestial equator, the position of the sun in relation to the constellations of the zodiac, methods for approximate measurement of angular distances, etc.
As if that weren't benefit enough, the author's explanations and writing style are clear AND interesting, and the reader gets a good foundation in "the anatomy" of the night sky, as it were.
I am thrilled to have found this book, and I am very grateful to Guilherme de Almeida for writing it. He says in his introduction, "If one clear night the reader feels some sense of contentment and satisfaction when looking at the starlit sky, this book was worth writing." Well, Mission Accomplished!

Click Here to see more reviews about: Navigating the Night Sky: How to Identify the Stars and Constellations (Patrick Moore's Practical Astronomy Series)

This book will interest anyone who marvels at the night sky and would like to learn to recognise constellations and identify the brightest stars by name. Renowned amateur astronomer, Guilherme de Almeida, dispels the myth that specialist knowledge and elaborate instruments are a prerequisite for all astronomical observation. His book emphasizes the point that getting to know the night sky with the naked eye is an essential platform from which to start any astronomical observation. Step-by-step, the reader is guided through the knowledge needed to recognise key constellations, identify stars and planets, and interpret changes in the overall appearance of the sky throughout the year. The text is enhanced by the use of maps and illustrations, making this practical guide an invaluable text for all but the most advanced amateur astronomers.

Get 34% OFF

Click here for more information about Navigating the Night Sky: How to Identify the Stars and Constellations (Patrick Moore's Practical Astronomy Series)

The Ice Diaries: The True Story of One of Mankind's Greatest Adventures Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Having been blessed to be a crewman in US Nautilus on all three of her Arctic cruises, one in 1957 and two in 1958, with the last successfully gaining the North Pole, I'm familiar with all the details. However, it was such a pleasure to read our late skipper's recent and highly updated accounting of those wonderful days. Anderson's first book,'Nautilus 90 North', written just after the Polar trip of 1958 was also a great read, but of necessity, omitted much of the background information and intrigue that led up to all these trips, especially the 1957 trip. Capt. Anderson was one of the most remarkable and humble men I've ever had the privilege to know, and as was his nature, always put the interest of the crew and ship before himself. This is reflected in his writings and as I read 'Ice Diaries', I could hear his soft Tennasee accent speaking right off the pages. Anyone who has an interest in history, the sea, the Navy, or especially submarines, will enjoy this book. It is a complete accounting of our adventures across two years of under ice excursions and I highly recomend it. It should be on every school library shelf in the country. John C. Yuill

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Ice Diaries: The True Story of One of Mankind's Greatest Adventures

Now, for the first time, the captain of the submarine USS Nautilus tells the newly declassified story of his ship's desperate Cold War race beneath the polar ice pack.The Cold War was in full swing. The Soviet Union had just successfully launched Sputnik, and President Eisenhower badly wanted to redeem the reputation of the US as technologically superior. "Operation Sunshine" was the answer: under top-secret orders, the Captain and crew of one of the first nuclear submarines, the USS Nautilus, crossed under the North Pole and became the first naval vessel to forge all the way under the polar ice pack to emerge near the former Soviet Union. Readers will voyage along with Captain Anderson as he shares newly declassified stories of his sub's encounters with terrible storms, fire in the hold, collisions with ice, broken compasses, and more.

Get 5% OFF

Click here for more information about The Ice Diaries: The True Story of One of Mankind's Greatest Adventures