Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
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Book Reviews of Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
Book Review: Truly incredible
Summary: 5 Stars
This book should be assigned reading for high school and college students. I wished I had read this book earlier so I could have seen how trivial people's everyday problems were compared to what Shackleton and his crew faced. It is an incredible story of survival and leadership. Even though this book was written so many years ago, it is in accessible language and it draws from the diaries of the men in the crew. It doesn't have pictures but I thought it was better that way because I could focus on the story itself. Alfred Lansing's language is very accessible and although some of my friends mentioned that the navigation/boating language was sometimes too much for them to follow, they appreciated it nonetheless because it made everything more real. It immersed them into the story. The book does rush through the last part of the rescue process a bit, but there are other books out there that can fill in the gaps. This book is a classic, if you are looking for a book to begin to get to know Shackleon, his crew and their incredible voyage, this is it.Book Review: No Warmth, No Life, No Movement - Antarctica Winter
Summary: 5 Stars
Only 40 pages in and I just had to share my first impression of this incredible book. The writing puts you aboard ship to experience your own feelings of doom and survival instinct. The circumstance of being onboard a ship that's stuck, embedded in nearly one million square miles of ice, 60 miles from the nearest shore, below zero temperatures with a sunless winter upon you sounds more like fiction than fact. As the ship's storekeeper would say:
"frozen like an almond in the middle of a chocolate bar."
Author Alfred Lansing, through crew diaries, logs, letters and survivor interviews, has recreated an event so frightful that you shudder while reading its pages. You actually find yourself enduring with the crew. So looking forward to continuing this courageous story.
Fortitudine vincimus - "By endurance we conquer"
Note: After finishing this gripping book and enduring the challenge of the Antarctic with Shackleton and crew, only one word comes to mind when reflecting on their journey; INCREDIBLE!
Book Review: Puts all other polar books to shame
Summary: 5 Stars
Alfred Lansing's "Endurance" is quite simply the definitive version of Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated 1914 expedition to Antarctica. He was supposed to lead the first people to cross the Antarctic continent, but his ship, the "Endurance," was trapped and crushed in the polar ice, leaving his group stranded and entirely on their own. It's quite possibly the greatest polar adventure story of all time.Based on numerous interviews and other meticulous forms of research, Lansing tells the story in great but not stupefying detail. He draws the reader in and makes you feel like you are actually standing on that ice floe with Shackleton, watching the ship disintegrate. He does a much better job of telling the story than Shackleton himself did in his book "South."
Although there have been many retellings of the "Endurance" story, both on page and on film (most recently A&E's "Shackleton" dramatization), none are as compelling or as readable as Lansing's book. Check it out; you will be enthralled.
Book Review: Incredible journey
Summary: 5 Stars
Wow, this book took me on a journey that helped me realize what an incredible task Shackleton and his crew had to battle. The descriptions of the things that they had to overcome was quite good, giving me a sense of actually "being there". Not only that, the photos in this book, taken by crew member Hurley, were breath-taking.So much has been written and produced about this voyage, but this is the signature book. I have a more "coffee-tablish" book, and it is one that I will treasure. The writer makes you feel like you really are there. This was a total joy to read. I really enjoyed the background information on the crew members. My next task is to read one of the "leadership" books that describes the things that Shackleton did to keep his crew engaged in survival, and getting back home.
I am an avid reader of these types of books, and it continues to amaze me that voyages like this one, as well as Lewis and Clark's, had little, or no, loss of life during some amazing times in our world and history.
Book Review: Even knowing the ending, it's a page turner
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm a fan of survivalist accounts such as "Seven Years in Tibet," and "In the Heart of the Sea." And I loved this true account of the voyage/survival of Shackleton's crew in the Antarctic. Asking friends and relatives if they've read it, I've heard, "I started it, but I didn't want to see everyone die!" So here's the *spoiler...nobody dies! *
The capacity of the human body to survive and of the human brain to figure out how to do it never ceases to amaze me.
Lansing's account ingeniously pieces together journals of the men involved and includes riveting details without ever being too gory. Even knowing the ending, it's a page turner. I've heard that this is the most involving of all the accounts published...coming across more like a story and less a documentary.
The images of the men on the ice have completely captivated me...the sounds and the movement. Be prepared to grab a blanket and a snack as you read (something not made of penguin)...you'll feel like you're there.